ESO ePOD
Contact ePOD
Please direct all enquiries and requests (English language is preferred) to this address:
ESO education and Public Outreach Department,
Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2
D-85748 Garching bei München
Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6291
Fax: +49 89 3200 6703
Email: information@eso.org
The Team
Organigram
A list of students and previous interns and visitors is available on this link.
Members
Head of Communications
Lars Lindberg Christensen
Head of the Department
Lars is a science communication specialist heading ESO-Hubble outreach group in Munich, Germany, where he is responsible for public outreach and education for VLT, La Silla, ALMA, ELT, and ESA's part of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Email:
Tel: +49 89 3200 6761
Email:
Tel: +49 89 3200 6291
La Silla-Paranal & E-ELT Public Information Officer
Email:
Tel: +49 89 3200 6222
Richard Hook
Survey Telescopes Public Information Officer / Image Processing
Richard was originally from England and has an MA in Physics from Oxford. After some time spent at the Royal Greenwich Observatory and in Australia and London, he has spent the last twenty years in the Space Telescope European Coordinating facility at ESO and has mostly worked on Hubble image processing. He was one of the developers of the "drizzling" technique for Hubble images and helped with the preparation of the Hubble Deep Fields and GOODS data. He also has a basement full of telescopes that, alas, rarely get used.
Read more about Richard on his website and check his publications on this NASA/ADS link
Email:
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Hubble Space Telescope Public Information Officer
Colleen Sharkey earned a degree in English Literature from the University of Cincinnati in her home state of Ohio in the U.S. When she headed west for graduate school, she got the opportunity to learn and write about space science at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Colleen first worked in the press office there and then moved on to write about NASA's missions to Mars. She worked closely with scientists and engineers on multiple projects including the Mars Exploration Rover mission (MER), Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission (MRO) and Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). Before moving to Germany, Colleen worked as the associate director of communications at Occidental College, the California alma mater of U.S. President Barack Obama.
Email:
Tel: +49 89 3200 6306
ALMA-APEX Public Information Officer/Education Officer/ Deputy Head of the Department
Douglas completed his Ph.D. at the Astrophysics Group of the University of Cambridge in 2001, working on A Submillimetre Continuum Survey of the Galactic Centre. During his Ph.D. he developed his interest in astronomical outreach. He worked from 2001 to 2005 as Science Outreach Specialist at the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hawaii, for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, on a wide range of science education and public outreach activities, before joining ESO in 2005.
Email:
Tel: +49 89 3200 6759
Science Writer Assistant
Will is a science writer based on the UK. He has written numerous articles for the UK’s top astronomy magazines including Astronomy Now and BBC Sky at Night magazine (where he currently works as staff writer). He has also worked as a science writer for the ESA/Hubble press office and continues to write press releases and other outreach material for both ESA/Hubble, ESO and IAU. You can see Will's publication list and read his blog on his website here .
Email: will.gater@gmail.com
Portal Editor/Science Writer Assistant
Adam graduated from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) in 2008 with a master's degree in journalism. He has written for Scientific American.com, Discover and Popular Mechanics, among other publications. Adam originally hails from Annapolis, Maryland, and before coming to Germany he lived just outside of Manhattan. In addition to reading and writing about science, Adam enjoys trying out exotic cuisines, going to the beach, tossing frisbees, and exploring.
Email:
Lars Holm Nielsen
Advanced Projects Coordinator
(Lars) Holm is specialist in development of information systems and software for cutting-edge science communication with a life long passion for astronomy. He has been affiliated to the ESO-Hubble outreach group since 2002 and is responsible for managing the implementation of advanced projects as well as the outreach web infrastructure.
Holm obtained a BSc in Computer Science from Roskilde University in Denmark in 2007, and has previously worked at IBM Research, IMAX Tycho Brahe Planetarium and Ericsson. He is currently also pursuing a MSc in Mathematical Modelling and Computation, besides being a passionate hiker, climbing and skier.
- CV
- List of Publications
- Link to personal homepage
Tel: +49 89 3200 6615
Raquel Yumi Shida
Web Content Coordinator
Raquel obtained a professional degree in architecture and urban planning at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, her home country. As an undergraduate student she started to study astronomy as a hobby in her spare time and took it so seriously that her passion became her profession. Since then she has worked at the Astronomy Department at the University of São Paulo, at NASA/STScI and at ESA/Hubble, doing both scientific research and astronomy outreach. Today she is responsible for creating visual and textual content and maintaining several websites for ESO, IAU, ESA/Hubble and the International Year of Astronomy 2009.
A fraction of her publications in astronomy and science communication can be found on this NASA/ADS link
Email:
Tel: +49 89 3200 6177
Advanced Projects Assistant
Luis Clara Gomes obtained his degree in Computer and Telematics Engineering in the University of Aveiro in 2006, and did research on health information systems in the Electronic and Telematic Engineering Institute, Aveiro, where he obtained his MSc with a final thesis on a Brain-Computer Interface prototype. Later he was involved in medical 3D movement analysis at LMU, Munich. Luis is also an active musician and DJ. Read and listen more about Luis' work:
@myspace http://myspace.com/moulinex
@discotexas http://www.discotexas.com/
@lastfm http://www.last.fm/music/Moulinex
@hypemachine http://hypem.com/search/Moulinex/1/
Tel: +49 89 3200 6615
Javier Enciso*
Web Content Assistant
Javier earned his bachelor degree in Ingeniería de Sistemas at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. After graduation, he moved to Shanghai where he took part in localization software projects as test engineer at the Intel's R&D Center.
Currently, he is a student at the Computational Science & Engineering Master Program at the Technische Universität München.
Email: jenciso@eso.org
Kaspar K. Nielsen*
Advanced Projects Assistant
Kaspar is a software developer and has a MSc in astrophyscis .
At the moment he is working on his PhD in mechanical engineering, doing numerical modeling. At the same time he is coding and supporting the FITS Liberator.
His main professional interests are coding, especially to multi-CPU systems and physics (mainly how to minimize entropy generation). In his spare time he likes to hang out with friends mostly drinking beer and telling funny stories.
Link to CV.
Email: kaspar.kirstein.nielsen@risoe.dk
Teis Johansen*
Advanced Projects Assistant
Teis is an engineering student from the Technical University of Denmark in the field of electrical engineering. Teis is currently on the team designing the onboard computer for the next student satellite.
Email: teis@siet.dk
Print Coordinator
Email:
Tel: +49 3200 6332
Print Assistant
Email:
Tel: +49 3200 6332
Animations/Graphics Coordinator
Some of the tools he uses for graphics and video:
- 3D:
- Maxon Cinema 4D 9.6
- NET Render (used on our 20 Ghz Renderfarm)
- Terragen v0.9
- Maxon Cinema 4D 9.6
- Video:
- Adobe After Effects 7
- Adobe Premiere 2
- Adobe Encore 2
- Pinnacle Liquid "Silver"
- Discreet Cleaner XL 6
- 2D:
- Adobe Photoshop CS2
- Corel Draw 12
- Adobe InDesign CS2
- Wacom Tablet
- Web:
- Macromedia Flash 4
- Macromedia Dreamweaver MX
Email:
Tel: +49 89 3200 6586
Video Coordinator
Email:
Tel: +49 3200 6422
Animations Assistant
He studied Physics/Applied Math (Astronomy) but eventually gave up on the idea of becoming a real scientist. Got his first real job on a science centre in Portugal, where for 6 years he's discovered, developed and matured his skills in visual science comunication. At ESO he's part of the latter steps of the chain, in a group which tries to deliver to the public the extraordinary science there developed in the exciting and inspiring manner it deserves. His tools of choice are Maxon's Cinema 4D, Adobe's Photoshop and After Effects and a Wacom Intuos 3. When he has the time, he also likes to do some photography, a sample of which you can see on his flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/muitosabao)
Email:
Tel: +49 3200 6855
Exhibitions Coordinator
Email:
Tel: +49 89 3200 6364
Photographer
Email:
Tel: +49 3200 6308
Chile ePOD Lead
Email:
Tel: +56 2 463 3258
Chile Press Officer
Email:
Tel: +56 2 463 3123
Press Officer in Chile (replacing Valentina Rodríguez during her maternity leave)
Valeria is a Chilean journalist who worked for a decade at the National TV Network (TVN), reporting science, technology and environmental matters for the news department. She worked before as a correspondent in New York for the same station. Valeria has also acted as consultant for media training of ESO science staff in Chile.
Email:
Tel: +56 2 463 3123
Chile Education & Outreach
Graduated in Astronomy, she has been mainly dedicated to public outreach and education, first at the IAC (Institute for Astrophysics of the Canary Islands), Spain and then at ESO Chile, since June 2006.
Email:
Tel: +56 2 463 3265
Chile Assistant for Outreach
Gabriela is an English and Japanese translator. She graduated from the University of Santiago in 2006 and since then she has worked as legal assistant in the International Trademark Department of an important Law Firm in Chile.
In 2007 she also obtained a diploma in Asian Studies at the Instituto de Estudios Avanzados in the University of Santiago. Now she joined ESO as assistant for both the outreach department and the legal service.
Email:
Tel:
Chile Intern
Email:
Tel: +56 2 463 3261
Science Liaison/Image processing
Email:
Tel: +49 89 3200 6752
Content Developer
Email:
Tel: +49 89 3200 6747
Image Processing
Electrical engineer and amateur astronomer. He was born and lives in Venice, Italy. Ever since he was a child his main interest is astronomy. Since 1997, he has collaborated with the Italian astronomy magazine called "Coelum", he wrote dozens of columns and several articles in space exploration and spaceflight history. He has produced or taken part in several works in popular science, like websites and multimedia CD-ROMs. One of his most recent projects is the web site http://www.skyfactory.org
In 2005 he became part of the ESA/Hubble office.
Email:
ddemartin@gmail.com
Graphic Design Intern
Ross graduated from the University of Leeds in 2008 with a degree in Management and Computing. After taking a year out to pursue more creative interests, he saw an invaluable opportunity to develop his talents commerically via a graphics internship at the ESO.
Outside of work Ross enjoys travelling, photography and tennis.
Email:
Claudia Mignone
Science Communication Intern
Claudia graduated from the University of Bologna and obtained a PhD in
Astronomy from the University of Heidelberg in 2009. After a few years
spent studying the expansion of the universe, she became more and more
interested in the relationship between science and society on our own
planet. As an intern at ESO, she's now learning how to communicate
astronomy to the public.
In her spare time, she enjoys black and white
photography, vintage couches and container terminals.
Email:
Simon Steinhöfel
Graphic Design Intern
Simon went to school at the Waldorf School in Prien am Chiemsee. After that, he studied graphic design and advertising at the Akademie-U5 ander Einsteinstraße in Munich where he learnt about the daily work of an large advertising agency, and did his diploma on the advertising and packaging of chocolate. Following this, he did several internships, and during this time also built his own small-scale web-design agency.
Since then, he has published his work on his own website (http://designer-wg.de/).
As an Internet enthusiast, he discovered and explored the ESO website, and wanted to get involved in this very interesting topic.
Email:
Roberto Duque
Graphic Design Intern
After graduating from the Tomar Polytechnic Institute in Portugal, Roberto worked as a freelance designer in Lisbon and London before moving to berlin as a graphic designer for exberliner magazine and after for eDarling. He plans on using his time with ESO to expand his portfolio before someday becoming a professional Designer.
Email:
Eric Hal Schwartz
Intern Science Communication
Eric recently graduated from Boston University’s Master’s degree program in Science and Medical Journalism. A professional writer for over three years, his work has appeared in many publications including the Boston Comment, the Arizona Daily Star, Xconomy, the Forward, and been featured on National Public Radio and online. An inveterate explorer and bibliophile, he looks forward to all the oppurtunities Germany and the ESO offer him.
Email:
International Year of Astronomy 2009 Coordinator
He obtained his University degree in applied mathematics/physics/astronomy and his Master's Degree in geophysics from the University of Porto, Portugal. Between 2000 and 2006 he worked as an astronomy communicator and content developer for Navegar Foundation in Espinho, Portugal. Before assuming his current position, as IAU Coordinator for IYA2009, he spent one year and half working with data from the Venus Monitoring Camera onboard ESA's Venus Express. In the meanwhile Pedro has been working with different international organizations, like Europlanet (European Planetology Network), IAU Commission 55: Communicating Astronomy with the Public and EGU Earth and Space Science Informatics Division.
Email:
Tel: +49 89 3200 6195
Mariana Barrosa
International Year of Astronomy 2009 Assistant
Mariana graduated in International Relations. She coordinated Centro Multimeios de Espinho, a science centre in Portugal. There, in addition to her management tasks, she worked in several science popularisation projects, from writing scripts for planetarium shows to organising scientific events and conferences. In 2004 she obtained a Post-Graduation in Management of Non Profit Organisations. More recently, she has collaborated with several international science communication projects, like the coordination of the production and distribution of the Portuguese version of the book and DVD "Hubble — 15 years of discovery" and the Press Office for Europlanet, the European Network of Planetary Sciences. In 2007, she completed an MSc in Science Communication in the UK.
Email:
Tel: +49 89 3200 6996
Lee Pullen*
International Year of Astronomy 2009 Staff Writer
Lee is a science communicator from the United Kingdom. He specialises in science writing and designing / implementing outreach projects. Examples of recent work include writing articles for NASA's web-magazine and Space.com, directing the first science festival to be held in the Welsh Valleys and lecturing undergraduate science communication students. In addition, he is the Coordinator and Editor of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 Cornerstone project "Cosmic Diary".
His personal webpage can be viewed here.
Email:
Tel: +49 89 3200 6996
Graphics Assistant
André Roquette Almeida is a Portuguese freelance graphic designer and illustrator, born in 1979. He began his career in 2000 by designing flyers for bars and clubs, and later in 2006 he graduated in Design and Communication at ESAD, Arts and Design School (in Porto, Portugal). His work experience includes design and illustration projects, press publicity and web design for several companies and agencies in Europe. Recently, he has also worked in the production of planetarium sessions at the Navegar Foundation in Portugal.
Email:
Distribution Assistant
Julia is studying Cultural Anthropology, Japanese and Psychology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich.
Currently she is in charge of the Hubble Shop and responsible for all kinds of distribution matters.
Email:
Tel: +49 89 3200 6232
Distribution Assistant
Beat is a student of Japanese Studies, Sociology and Educational Science at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich.
After his intermediate diploma he studied over one year as an exchange student at Waseda University in Tokyo. During this time he also worked as a translator and language teacher.
Email:
Tel: +49 89 3200 6232
Proof reader/Copy Editor
Anne has an MA in physics from Oxford, an MSc in modern optics and microwaves from University College London, and is studying for an MSc in mathematics. She has carried out research in fibre optic and integrated optic sensors and has also taught physics and mathematics in Germany and in the USA. Anne cut her editorial teeth on Russian patent abstracts in the 1980s, and since 2000 she has edited and proofread much of the output from the Hubble ESA Information Centre, and more recently for the ePOD.
Email:
* indicates that the person is working off-site / contractor
ESO Science Outreach Network
is a network of persons in the ESO Member Countries who serve as local contacts for the media. For contact information please consult the ESON address list.