My initial plan in life was to become a fighter pilot in the army yet bad eyesight changed those plans. The closest to get to my dream was to study aerospace engineering at the Delft University of Technology. I got interested in the space part of the studies and several years later I am still in the space business. In my career I have been exposed to various projects, from Earth observation to interplanetary missions. I have supported the development of instruments to fly to Venus, Mars and Jupiter in collaboration with scientists and engineers across Europe. Recently, I joined a new project called TRUTHS (Traceable Radiometry Underpinning Terrestrial Heliosphere Studies) that will establish an SI-traceable space-based climate and calibration observing system in order to improve today’s accuracy on climate forecasts.
I won the Marina van Damme Grant back in 2009 and thanks to the grant I could participate in the International Space Studies Program at NASA Ames. There, I learned about space law, space medicine, management which expanded my general knowledge about space projects which I still make use of in my day-to-day work at the European Space Agency.
My goal is to contribute to the better understanding of our climate and solar system through space based observations and measurements.