Filipina inspires after becoming Lead Operations Engineer at Europe Space Center

MANILA, Philippines – She grew up collecting pictures of astronauts as she dreamed of becoming one, but Gwendolyn Pascua-Demoulin would see a partial realization of that dream as she now works with the astronauts at the Europe Space Center.
Filipina inspires after becoming Lead Operations Engineer at Europe Space Center

astronaut

As a young girl, Gwendolyn enjoyed participating in science fairs. Studying elementary at Bulanao Central School and completing her secondary education at Tabuk National High School, both in Tabuk, Kalinga, Gwendolyn often represented her school in regional science fairs.

Filipina inspires after becoming Lead Operations Engineer at Europe Space Center
Photo credit: Lucerne University

It came as no surprise to everyone that she would study at the National Institute of Physics of the University of the Philippines – Diliman, taking up major courses in instrumentation and condensed matter physics. She graduated from Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics in 2005.

Filipina inspires after becoming Lead Operations Engineer at Europe Space Center
Photo credit: Inquirer

She would proceed at the same school to earn her Master of Science in Physics, completing the degree in 2008. That year, she was given the opportunity to study abroad. She completed her Master in Material Science Exploiting Large-scale Facilities, a dual Master degree from Université de Rennes 1, France and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany.

Her thesis supervisor, Dr. Hubertus Luetkens, was so impressed with the thesis she did at Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland that he offered her a position in the university. She went on to complete her doctorate in Experimental Physics at the University of Zurich in May 2014, with her impressive thesis dealing with magnetism and superconductivity.

Filipina inspires after becoming Lead Operations Engineer at Europe Space Center
Photo credit: The Popular Lists

Since 2015, she works in Project planning and Coordination, Operations Engineer Lead, and as Ground Controller at BIOTESC (Biotechnology Space Support Center). The company is one of the seven user-service and operation centers of the European Space Agency (ESA).

And while she did not become an astronaut, she still fulfilled part of her dream by closely working with many astronauts at the space agency.

— Joy Adalia, The Summit Express



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