A free public lecture brought Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield to the University of Waterloo on Tuesday, but it’s hardly the last time he’ll be setting foot on the campus – or in the city.

Hadfield was appointed as a professor of aviation at the school in October, and his contract with Waterloo runs until 2016.

Tuesday was the first time students, faculty and curious members of the public got to see the astronaut on campus.

“It’s an absolute top-notch Canadian university,” Hadfield told CTV News before the lecture.

The appointment marks a homecoming of sorts for Hadfield, who studied at the school in 1982 as a post-grad student, and whose parents and brother were born in Cambridge.

“It’s sort of the traditional place where my family’s from,” said Hadfield, who grew up in Sarnia.

Hadfield rose to national prominence – if he wasn’t there already – last winter, when he became the first Canadian to command the International Space Station.

If you think that sounds difficult, you’re right – but returning to terra firma presented its own challenges for Hadfield.

“It was extremely disorienting and unpleasant for the first week or two,” he said.

“After a few weeks I felt fairly normal, but it took four months until I could run again.”

It was social media, including tweets showing views of cities around the world from space and a Youtube video of David Bowie’s hit ‘Space Oddity’, that had Canadians paying more attention to outer space than had happened in a very long time – but Hadfield says communicating with the planet down below was just a small part of what he did while on board the ISS.

“Social media was only a tiny part of my mission – like a few minutes a day,” he said.

“We set records for the amount of science done on board. We did emergency spacewalks and all sorts of stuff on board. And occasionally I’d send a tweet.”

And for anyone looking to run into Canada’s most famous astronaut out and about in Waterloo Region? It’s entirely possible.

“All of my favourite hangouts were from when I was a grad student, so I don’t think they’re around anymore,” he said.

“I’ll be looking for new hangouts.”