EST NEWCOMERS (June 2019)

 

MARY BARRETO CABRERA. EST TECHNICAL DIRECTOR 
 

She holds an Industrial Electrical Engineer degree from University of Zaragoza and started working at the Observatorio Roque de los Muchachos (ORM, La Palma) as site testing engineer for the Large Earth Solar Based Telescope. She has also worked for the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias as ORM Site Manager, and as Project Manager at IAC Technology Division. Thirty three years’ experience in different fields related to the design, construction, operation and maintenance of instrumentation and telescopes will be her contribution to the EST project. 
MIGUEL NÚÑEZ CAGIGAL. EST SYSTEM ENGINEER  
 

Miguel is an engineer with 16 years experience. He was software
developer and AIV tester for the GTC active optics and EELT M1
actuators prototypes. He was also responsible for the electronics
of the GTC infrared instrument EMIR, including contributions to
the detector controller and characterization. He also organized
the integration of the electronics subsystems of EMIR at the GTC
telescope. Right before joining EST he was in charge of the
servo control and reconstruction strategy for the GTC Adaptive
Optics project. He joined EST in April 2019 as EST system engineer.
JORGE SÁNCHEZ-CAPUCHINO. MCAO TEAM  
 

Jorge has a M.Sc. degree in Applied Physics and a Ph.D. in Optical
Engineering as well as 20 years of experience as optical engineer
in the design, specification and testing of imaging, non-imaging,
spectroscopy and optical calibration systems. The last 15 years
he has developed optical engineering tasks focused on large
astronomical telescopes and their instrumentation. Besides, since
2018 he is in charge of the EST optical design.
 LUZMA MONTOYA MARTÍNEZ. MCAO TEAM  
  Luzma holds a PhD degree in Physics and more than 15 years of
experience in Astronomical Instrumentation. She works
at Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias as Adaptive Optics Scientist.
She is responsible for the development of Adaptive Optics for the
EST. She is skilled in the design, specifications and numerical
simulation of the Multi Conjugated Adaptive Optics system of the
future EST. She is currently working in the construction of a solar
MCAO demonstrator which will be installed in the IAC headquarters.
 ALBERTO ESCOBAR. EST PROJECT OFFICER  
  Alberto is a physicist (Kharkov State University, Ukraine, 1985), and
Ph.D. (University of the Basque Country, Spain, 2007). He has wide
experience managing European projects as well as national and
regional ones. He joined IAC in 2013 and has managed SOLARNETFP7
and GREST-H2020 European projects. In October 2018 Alberto
joined the EST Project Office, where he is in charge of managing
the direct grant awarded to EST by the Canary Government, and
SOLARNET-H2020.
 JORGE QUINTERO NEHRKORN.  EST ADAPTIVE OPTICS
  Computer engineer from the University of La Laguna, Jorge has
worked in multiple private companies as a software engineer
(mainly in JAVA). He has also developed applications for the
Canarian regional government. Before joining EST, he worked for
IACTEC, developing medical applications based on knowledge
obtained from astrophysical instrumentation. He now works in
MICAL, developing software for the GRIS spectrograph (GREGOR
telescope) to allow simultaneous observations at several
wavelengths. He is also part of the EST Adaptive Optics team.
JUAN CÓZAR CASTELLANO.EST PRELIMINARY DESIGN TEAM  
  Juan holds a MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering since 2014.
His professional career is devoted to the design, manufacturing and
testing of cryogenic prototypes, such as the mechanism of EMIR's
configurable slit unit. He also worked in the QUIJOTE experiment
for two years. In 2017, Juan joined the team of IACTec, connecting
the ongoing projects in the Large Telescope Programme (EST and
Liverpool Telescope II) with industry. He joined the EST Project
Office in the summer of 2018, and works towards the consolidation
of the preliminary design of EST.
HORACIO RODRÍGUEZ HIDALGO. MCAO TEAM  
  Horacio is an electronic engineer, a telecommunications technical
engineer, and a senior technician in occupational risk prevention.
He worked for more than 10 years as a specialist in Storage and
Backup Systems, performing maintenance and configuration
tasks in critical environments. He is currently developing the
update of the new synchronism system for the TIP2 instrument of
the GREGOR solar telescope, being part of the team in charge of
the design of the MCAO demonstrator for EST.
LAN QIANG ZHANG. MCAO TEAM  
 

Qiang is skilled in the conception and simulation of solar Adaptive
Optics (AO), and Multi-Conjugated Adaptive Optics (MCAO), as
well as the system optical design and operation both in laboratory
and on-sky with seven years’ experience. He took part in the
development of a 151-element solar AO and MCAO experiment
system st the NVST in China. He works at IAC as a postdoc for
MICAL project on the optical design of the MCAO test bench.
ADELINA PASTOR. EST COMMUNICATION OFFICE  
 

Adelina has a journalism degree and fifteen years experience
in science communication and journalism. She has worked as
a press and communication officer for the Spanish National
Research Council and the European Research Council. She was
also in charge of communications for the NEMESIS H2020 project,
and a project and communication manager for the WWViews
Climate and Energy citizen consultation in Spain. She joined the
EST Communication Office in May 2019.
VÍCTOR ANÍBAL LÓPEZ. EST COMMUNICATION OFFICE  
 

Víctor is journalist by University of Seville and holds an AV
Communication degree, and a Science Information master
degree from University of Granada. He has worked for the digital
departments of some of the main regional media companies in
Spain, such as Vocento and Joly. Before joining EST, he worked at
Parque de las Ciencias, one of the most visited science museums
in Spain, where he carried out promotional strategies for contents
and activities, and was responsible of relations with media and
also with profesionals of tourism sector.