TABUK CITY, Kalinga – In the elementary and high school, Gwendolyne Pascua-Demoulin collected photos of astronauts and when her mother Paulita asked her one time if she wanted to marry an astronaut, she said she herself wanted to become one.
The dream did not come from thin air. Since she was Grade V at the Bulanao Central School, Bulanao, this city, Demoulin had been a constant presence in regional science fairs
Now in her 30s, Demoulin laughs that the dream remains a dream but in a way, she has come as close to achieving it as can be because as Operations Engineer Lead and Ground Controller at Biotechnology Space Support Center (BIOTESC) in the Lucerne University in Switzerland, one of the seven user service and operation centers of the European Space Agency (ESA), she works with astronauts.
“We prepare their experiments and procedures starting from planning of their experiments and coordination with scientists and payload developers. We do all tests necessary on the ground before they are sent to the ISS (International Space Station),” she said.
She said that the ISS, a laboratory orbiting the earth, is a collaboration of the ESA, National Aeronautics Space Administration, the Canadian Space Agency, Japanese Space Agency and the Russian Space Agency.
As part of her preparation for joining the operations management team of BIOTESC, she earned a special certificate as a project manager. She continued that in their job, nothing is left to chance because space projects could cost up to billions of dollars. Before a mission is launched, all possible scenarios must be covered and corresponding simulations made, she said.
“Space projects should be precise and thorough,” she said.
One of her functions is the preparation of the mission operations and implementation concept, the blue print of a space project containing all the details. She said the job takes a lot of coordination and planning.
She said that part of their job is to train astronauts to execute and in so doing, follow the procedures.
“As the mission control team, we see how they are doing things in the space station and troubleshoot with them. Even the simple things they do like turning a button, we should know the safety implications,” she said.
Demoulin said that the main consideration of the mission control team is the safety of the crew adding that the mission and science are only second and third priorities, respectively.
At the moment, the BIOTESC mission control team is supporting French astronaut Thomas Pesquet who flew into the Internal Space Station (ISS) on board the Soyuz MS-03 on November 17 and will stay there for six months. His mission marks the start of the European Proxima space mission intended to conduct 50 science experiments in space.
Demoulin said she handles the educational payload operation of the Pesquet mission, the reason she postponed her vacation to the country scheduled last December to January this year.
“Nothing is easy but once you set your mind into something, you can reach anything. But make sure you make everything as a stepping stone because time flies,” Demoulin said.
Her career path is an exact application of her policy.
After graduating from the Tabuk National High School as salutatorian in 1999, Demoulin enrolled in Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics majoring in instrumentation and condensed matter physics at the University of the Philippines-Diliman finishing the course in 2005. She went on to take up Master of Science in Physics in the same school.
In 2008, she was accepted for the dual master degree Material Science Exploiting Large-scale Facilities in the Universite de Rennes I in France and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat in Muchen, Germany spending the first semester in France and the second in Germany.
She did her thesis in the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), a large scale facility in Switzerland with which both the Universite de Rennes I and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat are affiliated.
With her completion of her masteral course in 2009, she was offered a Ph. D. position in PSI by her supervisor in the preparation of her master thesis, scientist Hubertus Luetkens “because he must have wanted me to be his student.”
She said that a Ph. D. position in PSI is a job because occupants are paid salaries and they pay taxes.
Demoulin earned her Ph. D. in Experimental Physics degree in the University of Zurich in May 2014. Her thesis dealt with magnetism and superconductivity.
Asked about the practical applications of her study, Demoulin said that the principles of magnetism and superconductivity gives humanity the components of supercomputers, magnetic levitation trains and MRI.
She still speaks with excitement of the time during the orientation of new Physics students in the University of Zurich when they were ushered to the Albert Einstein corner and were enjoined to make the brilliant alumnus their inspiration and his quality of output the standard of their work. Einstein graduated from the Physics Department of the university.
She defended her thesis in March 2014 and graduated two months later.
There is at least an instance in her life when the unintended is proving to be a stepping stone towards her ultimate goal.
While in her undergraduate at Diliman, she and her three friends were among the thousands of Filipino girls who had crushes on the Taiwanese boy band F4. Their infatuation led them to enroll in Mandarin for three semesters.
Amidst the increasing space activity of China, Demoulin’s superiors at BIOTESC have encouraged her to further her knowledge of Chinese because of the possibility of collaboration with the Chinese on space projects in the future.
Demoulin also speaks French and German. She is also learning Russian at the moment.
But during the interview, Demoulin would revert to Ilocano at times.
Demoulin’s bonds with her roots extends beyond the language, During the interview, she recalled with fondness how as a young girl, she was exposed to tribal customs because her grandfather William Banasan, a member of the Madukayong tribe, would bring her along to peace negotiations.
She has Ilocano and Tagalog blood also.
Regarding how local scientists are faring, Demoulin has this to say: “We have world class scientists but they lack support. Unlike in western countries which put a lot of funding to research on science because they see the direct impact on society, there is little support for science in the country. Science is not one of our priorities.”**By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
