I have a clear purpose in life: to lead a maximally dynamic existence by
experiencing a variety of changes, and to help others live similarly
fulfilling lives.  It took me 16 years of growing up to realize this
purpose.  I was born when my parents came to the United States from Japan
for my father's graduate studies.  My parents tell me that they raised me
extremely strictly.  I am grateful for that because, as a result, they
have been able to trust my honesty and respect my free will.  When I was 5
years old, my father finished his PhD program in chemistry at the
University of Michigan and we moved to Japan.  During the next 7 years in
Japan my family moved three times, unintentionally training me to adapt to
new environments.  Even though I was always the new kid in school, I made
very good friends each time.  Attending schools in Japan, as well as being
a Boy Scout, taught me good discipline, teamwork skills, and respect for
others.

My curiosity about outer space sparked when I was 9 years old.  One day I
picked up a huge astronomy encyclopedia from a library and began reading
it from the beginning.  Completely fascinated to learn about everything
that existed beyond Earth, I remember reading more than 250 pages of it.
When I was 11 years old, I bought a book on cosmological theories and was
absolutely enthralled.  I still own this book and when I look back at its
pages, it brings back memories of exactly what I was thinking and how
excited I was when studying it 10 years ago.  My desire to learn even more
about the universe was so strong that I remember spending a big portion of
my pocket money to buy A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.  At the
time, I read it just out of curiosity, but this book would later provoke
my thoughts about the purpose of life.

What changed my future completely was moving to the US for 2 years when I
was 12 years old.  Attending American schools helped me to identify myself
as an individual and to begin thinking creatively and proactively.  I
began to realize that I could make choices about my future.  Because of my
fascination with the outer space, I set a goal in my life of going to
space as an astronaut.  I decided to go to the Space Academy camp, and
there learned what it takes to become an astronaut.  I felt strongly that
training my creativity in American educational system (rather than
focusing on gaining knowledge, as students do in Japanese schools) would
help me more toward achieving my goal.  When my family moved back to
Japan, I made a life-altering decision at age 14 of separating from the
rest of my family to study in the US.  After a year of struggle trying to
find a legal guardian (required for enrolling in a high school in the US)
while attending middle school and high school back in Japan, I finally
made the accomplishment of returning to the US.

Since then, I have had a truly valuable life full of challenges and
excitement.  At first it was difficult because English still sounded and
felt very foreign.  Living away from my parents, I grew increasingly more
independent and responsible.  I had a unique experience of living with
three different host families during my high school years.  Having
experienced elementary, middle, and high schools in both Japan and the US,
I benefited from both educational systems.  When I was 15 years old, I
reread A Brief History of Time, this time filling the margins with
numerous questions and opinions.  Reading about the origin of the universe
made me ponder why the universe exists and why I exist.  The more I
thought, the more I became convinced that changes -- in a very broad sense -- are
what make life fulfilling.  That is how I arrived at my purpose of life.
I have since been making decisions not with mere instinct, but with an aim
toward making my life and others more dynamic.  I'm always open for change,
and have been adventurously proactive about trying new things.

Throughout my high school years, I kept up my enthusiasm about space
exploration and physics.  To share my passion for space with others, I
volunteered for the Young Astronauts Program for three years, preparing
interactive exercises and presentations to teach kids science and
communication skills.  Because I strongly wished for space exploration to
become a peaceful global activity, I wrote extensive letters to NASA
Administrator Dan Goldin as well as to Carl Sagan and Louis Friedman of
The Planetary Society to advocate international cooperation.  When I was
17 years old, after a discussion with a friend about gravity one
afternoon, I began developing a model to explain what causes gravity.  So
excited, I continued thinking without sleeping and finished writing a
7-page theory as I noticed the sun rising.  During my last year in high
school I continued formulating my theory with the guidance of a PhD
physicist, and finally summarized it in a research paper that received
recognition in an international physics contest.  I felt like a true
scientist.  To learn even more in an ideal environment with high
intellectual standards, I chose to come to Caltech.

Caltech was a place where I could begin to do actual science in the field
that always fascinated me.  My freshman year, after seeking research
opportunities from ten astronomers and receiving positive feedback from
all of them, I was most excited about a millisecond pulsar search project
under Dr. Shri Kulkarni.  For something as large as a star to be rotating
100s of times per second was just amazing and almost unimaginable to me.
Especially after Dr. Kulkarni told me what it would mean to the physics of
the densest matter if we discovered submillisecond pulsars (neutron stars
that rotate at over 1000 times per second), I was so determined to find
them.  I worked nearly all day every day throughout the summer and learned
so much about pulsar astronomy and signal processing.  As I continued my
studies of physics and astronomy, I grew increasingly interested in
cosmology, particularly in the question of how the universe began.  This
past summer, I found the opportunity to contribute in an important aspect
of a major cosmological survey proposal for using the Space Infrared
Telescope Facility (SIRTF).  With the supervision of Dr. Charles Beichman,
the chief scientist of NASAs Origins Program, I investigated how well
SIRTF will be able to determine the redshifts of detected galaxies.
Exchanging ideas with other astronomers to try to solve problems in
cosmology was most exciting.

In between such focused research experiences, I decided to do something
different for a change during my second summer at Caltech.  Coming to the
US from Japan and noticing that my viewpoint tended to be more global than
those of fellow Americans assured me that I should continue to experience
various cultures to further widen my perspective as early as possible in
life.  Therefore, I applied for the National Security Education Program
scholarship to go live in Russia for the summer even though I did not know
any Russian yet.  I had always wanted to visit Russia because it was one
of the most active space-faring nations.  I felt that learning about
Russia and its people would be crucial in pursuing my longtime ambition to
promote international cooperation in space exploration.  Rather than being
a usual tourist, I walked the streets of Saint Petersburg and Moscow as
much as possible, exploring every little corner of the cities and talking
with the beggars before giving them money or food.  I learned not only the
language, but also much about how people treat each other in Russia.
After 10 weeks in Russia, I spent the rest of the summer in Japan to do a
training program at the Tsukuba Space Center.  I wanted to learn about
Japan's space program for the same reason I wanted to learn about Russia
to effectively advocate international cooperation.  There I learned the
basics of space mission design as well as how people interact in the
workplace in Japan.  That summer gave me a perfect chance to reflect on
the differences between the three very distinct cultures of the USA,
Russia, and Japan.

To be an active explorer of space and to help people appreciate that the
world is even more than the Earth, I have been leading the Students for
the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) as its president at
Caltech.  This past summer I started two major projects: preparing a
viable proposal for an observatory on the Moon (with a goal of submitting
it to NASA for its consideration), and constructing a science-grade CCD
camera setup to use it with our on-campus 14-inch telescope.  I have also
been working to arrange a continuous display of NASA TV on the campus so
that passersby can view activities in space anytime.  Also over the
summer, I became good friends with an exceptionally motivated student who
was visiting from Venezuela, and we are now working together to start the
first SEDS chapter in his country.  In addition to this, I am starting a
collaborative astronomy project with an astronomy club in Russia, most
likely using the Mount Wilson Observatory.  Through these international
projects, I am trying to prepare myself for involvement in more ambitious
global projects in the future.

Considering how much impact coming to the US and going to Russia had
on me, I am confident that living and studying in the United Kingdom will
mark yet another revolution in my life.  After completing PhD research in
cosmology, I will apply to be an astronaut.  My more ambitious goals are
to establish a groundbreaking observatory on the Moon (for which I am
currently working on a proposal), and to promote international cooperation
in space exploration with the ultimate aim of establishing a global
organization for this purpose.