ESA Directorate of Science: unveiling the mysteries of the universe

This month’s edition of ESA Career News takes you right to the heart of science at ESA with Professor Carole Mundell, who joined ESA as Director of Science in March 2023. Professor Mundell gives us an insight into the fascinating work of ESA’s Directorate of Science and the extraordinary missions it will launch in the future and explains how her role fits into all this mind-boggling activity. She also outlines the impressive career path that led her to ESA, one that encompasses achievements in science, academia, leadership and government policy. Read on for a glimpse into the world of science at ESA and get to know its exceptional representative.

Can you tell us about your role as Director of Science at ESA?

I have the privilege to lead the ESA Science Directorate and, as such, I am also Head of Establishment at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre, near Madrid – the ESA home of science – and where I act as DG’s diplomatic representative in Spain. I have staff in five different countries, including the United States, and it is a leadership and management role that covers a very broad portfolio.

Our directorate works with our Member States to ask and answer the most fundamental questions about the nature of the Universe and our place in it. To do this, we devise and deliver advanced technologies to fly on spacecraft that travel around and beyond the Earth’s orbit to study the cosmos – from our nearest planetary neighbours like Mars, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter, the physics of the Sun itself and its impact on Earth, exoplanets that orbit around other stars in our Milky Way galaxy and the nature of distant stars, galaxies and black holes out the edge of the observable Universe – and, ultimately, to the probe the Universe back to its earliest moments, the nature of space-time itself and the laws of physics that govern it.

We work in very close collaboration with the research communities in our Member States to build our programme, through rigorous peer review and harnessing the brightest and best ideas from our Member States. We also collaborate on missions with our international partners such as NASA, JAXA and the Chinese Academy of Science.

We have a very dynamic programme: all our missions are visionary and ground-breaking in their science and technology developments and lay the foundation for technology transfer to future mission within and beyond our Science Directorate.

The Science Programme was part of the foundation of ESA when it was formed in 1975 and, as such, the mandatory funding provides the crucial stability our programme needs to deliver the scientific and engineering ambition demanded and enabled by our Member States over generational timescales. In turn, the results from these ground-breaking science missions enable technological innovations and help build scientific and industrial capacity and capability across our Member States. The programme also inspires the next generation of scientists, engineers and technologists. This is critical for European leadership in the world; Europe is facing a STEM professions skills gap in coming years that is vital to address and in which ESA can play a valuable role.

Finally, we also work hard to be good custodians of the legacy data because the data that come from our science missions become very valuable for future generations. We are driving innovations in our digital platforms, which we share with others across the agency, and continually striving to find new ways to enable scientists and citizens to engage with our missions’ data. It is exciting to see new generations of young scientists applying novel methods to our legacy data, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, to answer unexpected questions that could not be envisaged when the missions were first conceptualised.??

The current Science Programme strategy, Cosmic Vision, was devised in 2007 for missions to be delivered between 2015 and 2035. You are well on track to deliver these missions and you will soon ramp up its successor, Voyage 2050. What scientific questions do you think the Science Programme will aim to answer in its strategies in the coming decades?

The final missions of the Cosmic Visions programme encompass science from studies of the Solar System to gravitational waves. This year, we launched the L1 mission JUICE to study the icy moons of Jupiter, the wider Jovian system and to search for signatures of habitability in the liquid oceans we believe exist beneath the icy crusts. We also launched the incredible Euclid mission to study the dark Universe, to understand the nature of dark matter and dark energy by surveying one third of the sky back to 10 billion years ago with exquisite precision. Missions in development include PLATO and ARIEL, which will study exoplanets beyond our Solar System and, for the first time, give us unprecedented insights into the properties of exoplanet atmospheric chemistry! Comet Interceptor, to be launched in tandem with Ariel, will loiter in space for 2-3 years, then chase and study a comet – sounds almost like science fiction! And we are going through the mission adoption reviews at the moment for our ground-breaking Venus mission, EnVision, and the three-spacecraft LISA mission which will enable us to probe ripples in space-time caused by the catastrophic merger of supermassive black holes – whilst pushing our spaceflight skills to the limit! ?In parallel, we are currently reviewing the viability of the NewAthena X-ray mission, which seeks to study high-energy radiation from very hot X-ray emitting plasmas in extreme places in the cosmos such as close to black holes and in massive galaxy clusters. This is just a flavour of the work led by our directorate.

Voyage 2050 takes that to a new level. To devise the strategy, we invited ideas from our science community and had a huge response. These concepts were then distilled through an extensive review process into three main themes for our large missions: (1) Moons of the giant planets (2) From temperate exoplanets to the Milky Way (3) New physical probes of the early Universe. We also prioritised a vigorous Medium-class mission strategy and the first set of five shortlisted missions are under competitive review for the M7 mission slot. Voyage 2050 also identified new technology developments that will be needed for the next century, such as cold atom interferometry for atomic clock development, enabling X-ray interferometry for the future study of compact objects like black holes, and developments for future planetary missions: in particular better power sources to enable the exploration of the outer Solar System, and advances in collecting and storing cryogenic samples of cometary ices for the search for life in the outer Solar System.

In addition to those big programmes, we have the faster missions, the so-called F missions. One example is ARRAKIHS, which will build on some of the technology that we developed for the Euclid mission and is led from Spain. ARRAKIHS will be studying the very faint light that we see from nearby galaxies, so I think of that almost like a galactic archaeology mission trying to understand the origins of galaxies and further understand the nature of dark matter.

Can you please tell us about your career path and what brought you to ESA?

I trained as a radio astronomer at Jodrell Bank Observatory, studying atomic hydrogen and galaxies and trying to understand the supermassive black holes at the heart of those galaxies. I then moved over to the United States where I learned to live in a different country and do science in a very different system. That experience was thrilling – working at the University of Maryland, with close collaboration with colleagues at NASA Goddard Spaceflight Centre and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. I returned to the UK on a Royal Society Research Fellowship, which I took to Liverpool John Moores University and created a world-leading research group to study gamma ray bursts with new autonomous and robotic telescope technology. Bringing together theorists, experimentalists and engineers was a winning combination and a lot of fun! I became a Professor in 2007 – a short while after my second son was born - and, in 2015, I was recruited by the University of Bath in 2015 to build a brand-new astrophysics research group and establish their first astrophysics undergraduate programme. That was an exciting and very busy time, employing brilliant young people from around the world to build something from scratch, all the while working at the frontiers of international research. I was named FDM Everywoman in Technology, Woman of the Year 2016, which further inspired me to work across traditional boundaries and introduced me to new networks of inspiring women technologists.

In 2018, I became the first woman to hold the position of Chief Scientific Advisor to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the UK government, where I led a global network of Science and Innovation officers, provided science advice to our Foreign Secretary and supported our ambassadors in utilising science in their diplomatic work. The portfolio was very broad, with the high-level objectives to deliver UK government policy across influence, security, prosperity and development. I was subsequently appointed as the UK’s first Chief International Science Envoy and, during the pandemic, I served on the UK Science Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). It was humbling to support such an incredible mobilisation of our academic and science communities at a time of unprecedented global crisis.

In 2021, I was elected as President of the UK Science Council, a membership organisation of 36 professional bodies and academic societies across science, bringing together a range of disciplines and sectors to reflect the multi-disciplinary practice of science in today’s society. My two priorities as President were to (1) champion professional practice in science, independent of subject discipline via accreditation and professional recognition for the technical and scientific workforce – including science teachers and (2) to strengthen the ecosystem that builds trust in science, the trustworthiness of our science systems, standards and public understanding. I was honoured to be named as one of three Honorary Fellows of the British Science Association in 2022; they do incredible work embedding science in society.

My secondment to government ended in 2021 and I returned full-time to academia, as Hiroko Sherwin Professor of Extragalactic Astronomy. In 2022, I spotted the vacancy for ESA Director of Science. It was exciting to see a position that encompassed everything I enjoyed!? I applied and went through the rigorous recruitment process. It was an exceptional opportunity and I felt deeply honoured to be announced as the successful applicant by DG Josef Aschbacher on 15 December 2022. I took up post on 1 March 2023 and have had a whirlwind introduction to the Agency.

What has struck you most about ESA so far compared to other organisations that you've worked for?

I’m deeply impressed by the talent and commitment of all those who enable our missions; the creativity, rigour, attention to detail plus big-picture vision all come through. A real sense of teamwork across all our job families. It’s also a very exciting international and multi-cultural environment.

I’m learning a lot from colleagues who have served ESA for many decades and, equally, from new recruits who bring fresh ideas and challenge to established ways of working.

No two days in my work are alike and I really enjoy the complexity of my portfolio, which will also lay the foundations for future generations – that gives one a sharp sense of responsibility!

What advice do you have for potential candidates who are interested in joining ESA?

Go for it! There are many ways to work with ESA . Think about your strengths, interests, what you can contribute, what are your core competencies and how you would like your career to develop. Find a role that excites and engages you; look for the learning in every experience.

Any special moments that stand out from your time at ESA so far?

I would probably have to mention the launches of JUICE (going to Jupiter to study its icy moons and look for habitability) on 14 April and Euclid (looking at the nature of the dark universe) on 1 July. It's unprecedented that a new director would get one launch, never mind two. But for me, it's not just the launch. It’s the thrill of seeing all the hard work and dreams of so many teams come together and open new windows on our cosmos. It is a breathtakingly tense time and then one of joy when everything goes according to plan – plus a quiet realisation that success in space is never guaranteed! There is also a poignancy as one team’s work ends and another’s begins.

Being part of that is really special.

ESA recruits – and not only astronauts!

In the coming years, ESA will be recruiting many new colleagues to join our teams and support our mission of the peaceful exploration and use of space for the benefit of everyone. Vacancies across different areas are being published on an ongoing basis, so if you are ready to take the next step in your career, this is your chance! Explore our vacancies and apply today. You can also set up a job alert to receive a notification when a position matching your profile is published.

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