The Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management at the University of Debrecen has awarded research astronaut Tibor Kapu the title of honorary associate professor, the university’s press office announced on Monday.
In a statement, the university recalled that during the Axiom-4 mission, Kapu carried out the Vitapric complex plant biology and space crop cultivation experiments developed by researchers at the Debrecen faculty on board the International Space Station, significantly contributing to their success.
Kapu received the certificate of appointment at the faculty’s graduation ceremony on Saturday, where he also addressed newly graduated students. Encouraging them to face the future with confidence, he urged graduates to ‘ride the waves boldly, because even bigger ones are coming, and only a surfboard built from your thirst for knowledge and painted by your curiosity will keep you afloat.’
He added that graduates should be grateful for living in the present and for the alma mater that had provided them with the tools to navigate these challenges. Kapu acknowledged that he understands the anxiety and uncertainty of entering the labour market with little more than a brief CV.
‘Ride the waves boldly, because even bigger ones are coming, and only a surfboard built from your thirst for knowledge…will keep you afloat’
Addressing the students, he offered reassurance, saying the opportunities whose seeds had already been planted within the university’s walls were now being nurtured, awaiting the right conditions to grow.
‘They don’t know it yet, and you don’t know it yet, but I do,’ Kapu said. ‘Trust me, because I have already raised Debrecen seedlings in space. Believe me, they grew the strongest, and I was the proudest.’
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