Cecil Tranquille Email & Phone Number

Madrid, Community Of Madrid, Spain

Calibration of particle instruments for the Cluster mission.

Esac, Madrid

Business Intelligence analysis of Gaia (ESA Astronomy mission) data pipeline. Use of open source BI applications such as JasperSoft, SpagoBI, etc.

Noordwijk/Leiden, The Netherlands

Research in the domain of cyber-security as part of the European Union FP7 funded PANOPTESEC project to provide a state of the art cyber defence decision support system for information and communication technology networks. I was responsible for the collection of system vulnerability information using commercial network scanners (NMap, GFI LanGuard, Nessus, OpenVAS, Secunia) and extracting advisory data for specific hardware/software configurations provided by government repositories (NVD and CVE). These data were further correlated with complementary cyber security information to provide input to the decision making components of the PANOPTESEC prototype. Software components were developed in Java and tested and integrated into the overall system. Extensive use of relational database management systems was required for this work.I was also responsible for establishing and maintaining the project website and supporting the dissemination activities resulting from the study.

Noordwijk, The Netherlands

I provided general support to RHEA project management activities, including written contributions to a number of technical proposals and the technical screening and recruitment of potential candidates for contractor positions. In addition, I participated in contract management of ongoing IT support contracts with ESA/ESTEC Directorates, and engineering support contracts with the ESA Prime Contractor for the upcoming Solar Orbiter mission.I implemented a solar flare prediction application based on a Bayesian method for analysing past flare activity. Existing IDL code and astronomy application libraries were ported to a Solaris platform. The code was scripted and configured to run automatically, and the output integrated into a dedicated website to present daily forecasts of solar flare activity. The application was presented as a potential service to aid spacecraft operation teams interested in monitoring space weather conditions.

Estec, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

I was responsible for the design and development of a scientific data archive for the ESA/NASA Ulysses mission, launched to explore the polar regions of the Sun and heliosphere. The data archive was initially developed for secure on-line access by the Ulysses Principal Investigator (PI) teams (distributed throughout Europe and the US), using VAX hardware and the DECNET transport protocol. The archive evolved into an open system for the general scientific community, allowing full Internet access to data, data products and documentation. Following the end of the mission, the Ulysses archive was ported to the ESA long-term repository for science mission data at ESAC.This work required close collaboration with the PI institutes for data set definition, production, verification and documentation, with project reporting at twice yearly Science Working Team (SWT) meetings. Tasks were performed in parallel with the US data archives, located at the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) and at the Planetary Data System (PDS). These activities were coordinated with other space physics mission archives, and conform to SPASE (Space Physics Archive Search and Extract) guidelines and recommendations defined by ESA/NASA steering bodies in the framework of emerging virtual observatories. I also participated as a panellist in the 2009 NASA Senior Review for the performance and funding of the main US Heliophysics data centres.

Estec, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

I provided consultancy to ESA projects in the field of space radiation environment, required for the design of critical spacecraft systems such as solar arrays, microelectronics (single event upsets), detectors, etc. This work required the use of standard radiation environment codes and also the development of hybrid or specialised codes to solve non-standard design problems. Verification and improvements to the models were continually assessed, using existing in-situ spacecraft measurements where possible. I contributed to the first Space Weather activities undertaken by ESA and participated in the initial ESA led industrial studies to improve the trapped radiation belt models (TREND).I have experience in the detailed modelling of the interactions of space radiation with spacecraft systems (GEANT) and microelectronics (CREME). The radiation transport codes employ Monte Carlo simulation techniques and allow full three dimensional modelling of spacecraft and their sub-systems. The implementation, development and porting of legacy FORTRAN code was required.From the end of 1993, I worked primarily on Ulysses archiving activities described in the previous section.

Estec, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

I completed two years in the Space Science Department of ESA, analysing scientific data from the International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE-3) in interplanetary space and during the passage through the tail of comet P/Giacobini-Zinner. The measurements were made by a low energy particle experiment, measuring protons and electrons as a function of energy and arrival direction. The particle data were correlated with complementary measurements, typically magnetic field and solar wind parameters. During this period, I published several scientific papers, both as first author and co-author, and presented talks and posters at scientific conferences.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Theoretical Particle Physics

Bachelor Of Science (B.Sc.), Physics With Medical Applications

European Baccalaureate