Curriculum Vitae Pablo Marcos Arenal

Researcher in Science Data Processing and Astronomical Instrumentation.

My work and expertise has grown in two aspects: on one side, I become the responsible of the Science Operation Centre at the WSO-UV Spanish Ground Segment; on the other side, I keep developing my scientific career as a researcher.

As a researcher, my field of study is focused on the search of exoplanets and the development of instrumentation devoted to achieve that goal. I contribute to that end from my expertise in data processing development, since I have wide experience in software engineering development for instrumentation in space missions. In this regard, I have designed and developed a software tool to simulate the performance of different astronomical instruments in order to asses and validate its scientific performance. I contribute to the research in exoplanets by including the spectroscopy functionality to the simulator in order to study, in the future to come, the detectability of exoplanets’ atmospheres and their composition.

As responsible of the WSO-UV Spanish Operation Centre, I deal with the management and development of the operational software of the WSO-UV observatory. My contribution also includes the testing and validation of the WSO-UV Mission Operation Centre and the development of new applications and functionalities for the Science Data Processing of the mission.

During the last two years in the AEGORA Research Group at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, I have not only worked for the WSO-UV science data processing, but I also had the opportunity to contribute in the optical design of two instruments: The Field Camera Unit to be on-board the WSO-UV space observatory, and the UV spectrograph for the ARAGO mission proposal to the European Space Agency.

 

WORK EXPERIENCE:

UCM (APRIL 2015 – NOWADAYS)

Research Associate at Universidad Complutense de Madrid in the WSO-UV Project:

Responsible of the Science Operation Center at the WSO-UV Spanish Ground Segment.

 

Leuven University (JUNE 2012 – JULY 2015)

Research Associate at KU Leuven in simulations and software algorithms for space missions.

Development of the PLATO SIMULATOR, an end-to-end software tool designed for the validation of the scientific requirements in noise levels of the selected M3 PLATO mission, designed to find extrasolar planetary systems.

 

GMV (JULY 2007 – MAY 2012)

Software Engineer. Architectural design and development of algorithms for the MSI instrument data processing carried by the ESA EarthCARE mission.

Demonstration test-bed for the remote control of an automated follow-up telescope within the ESA SSA-ROB (Space Situational Awareness) project.

Development of the Telescopes Scheduling Simulator for the space-based telescope on-board the CO-V spacecraft.

Architectural design and development of the Science Data Processing Centre for the Ground Control System of the WSO–UV space mission. Algorithms development and implementation for the WSO–UV science data reduction pipeline.

 

European Space Agency (MARCH 2007 – JUNE 2007)

Trainee Project: Image analysis and calibration of the EPIC camera at XMM-Newton

spacecraft. Analysis of X-Ray sources and background-associated images with SAS software

and check cross calibration archive.

 

EDUCATION:

2014 PhD in Science at KU Leuven, Belgium

2007 Msc in Astrophysics at UCM & UAM, Madrid, Spain

2006 Degree in Physics at UCM, Madrid, Spain