Meet the SG[France] 2021 team !

This year's SG[France]  is brought to you by a team of fifteen people from various background, education and occupation sharing a common passion for space.

They are all conviced that space has a key role to play in the future of mankind, and are striving to offer you a valuable opportunity to learn and share on the subject.

Meet us!

Tania GRES
Tania GRESEvent manager & Communication team

Tania is a french engineer graduated from IPSA Toulouse with a specialization in space systems, and currently part of the SEEDS Master’s program in Politecnico di Torino. Having interned at Eumetsat (Darmstadt, Germany) and Airbus Defence and Space (Toulouse, France) gave her a wide idea of what it takes to work in a multicultural environment and the differences between the industry and a European organization. More than just a Space geek, her passion for this domain led her to take part in many space related projects from the organization of the 30th planetary congress which brought together 100 astronauts in Toulouse to her involvement in analog astronaut missions to Mars. She also loves to share her experience to young people about being a woman in the STEM field, inspiring the next generation is the key to reach gender equality in those domains. Tania’s adventure with SGAC only started a year ago, but attending the SG[France]2020 let her with a huge motivation to be more involved in this association which brings together passionate and fascinating people. And what better way to be involved than to organize the next event? See you next July!

Raphael MENA MORALES
Raphael MENA MORALESDelegates & Sponsors team

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. This year has proven itself trying at times, making us sometimes forget the beauty that lies all around us. Life can have different meanings; Raphael believes working in Space is one way to find purpose. Telecom satellites connect people from around the world. Next-gen rockets make us able to go further into the unknown for new scientific discoveries that will improve our way of life. Space colonization ensures that Life will go on. Earth Observation is and will be key in saving the lives of millions in the next challenges to come. Raphael Mena Morales graduated from ENSEEIHT engineering school in Toulouse, with a semester done at Polytechnique Montréal. A Telecommunications and Computer science engineer, he currently works for Airbus Defence and Space UK, taking part in next-gen payload programs, after having done internships at SES in Luxembourg and at Airbus Defence and Space Toulouse. He considers himself lucky to work in an industry at the forefront of innovation, where each new challenge is tackled by a new technology. He takes pride in thinking that our work has purpose: safeguarding Earth as we know it and improving the condition of all. He’s convinced this can only be done if we, the next generation, are able to learn from our elders and contribute as one to the future of the space industry, one SGAC event at a time.

Min CUI
Min CUISponsors & Communication team

Min is a graduate from IPSA (Paris, France) with a Master’s degree in Aerospace engineering, with a specialization in Space Launchers and Satellites. For her end-of-studies internship, she worked on the calculation of risks associated with uncontrolled re-entry, at the French Space Agency (CNES). She has been involved in three space missions design : the EREBUS mission concept (Capitanio, L. et al.EREBUS), the PAHST mission concept within 2017 Alpbach Summer School events and a space mission concept to remove space debris as part of her Master’s final project. She loves designing a space mission and organizing space events as a team. She enjoyed participating in SG[France]2020 Our Giant Leap event: the event organization, exchanges our experience during the Round Table activities and the opportunity to meet passionate people. All of this motivated her to be part of the organization of the SG[France]2021 and she believes that the event will be as successful as SG[France]2020.

Simon HAMEL
Simon HAMELCommunication team

French engineer, he graduated from the ISAE-ENSMA school of aerospace engineering in Poitiers, France with a specialization in structural and material engineering in 2018. Because he was born 200 years too late to explore the Earth, Simon’s always wanted to be part of the amazing endeavor of conquering space. After interning in Denmark and in Bayonne and with an experience at Airbus Commercial Aircrafts in Toulouse as a system engineer, he is currently working at the EPFL - Lausanne Institute of Technology in Switzerland, on the development of a solution to remove debris from low-earth orbit, in the frame of the ESA ADRIOS program. Simon joined SGAC a few months ago and decided to get involved in the organization of SG[France]2021 in the hope that he could participate in fostering development and innovation within the European space sector through collaboration with other industries.

Antoine BOCQUIER
Antoine BOCQUIERPrograms team

Graduated from a double Master’s degree in General and Aerospace Engineering at Ecole Centrale de Lille & at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Antoine is a Business Engineer at Ispace Europe in Luxembourg and prepares private lunar exploration missions. He is passionate about space exploration, entrepreneurship and collective adventures, which built his vision: to associate engineering, science and entrepreneurship for a more sustainable space exploration. Getting closer to his dreams, he participated in a Mars analog simulation at MDRS (featured in Le Monde de Jamy) and won Act In Space France 2018, with his team Lycie (2nd international place). While not on the Moon or Mars, he is moving around exploring Earth, be it travelling or trekking. He especially enjoys autonomous/long distance trekking, in challenging and wild mountains. Antoine joined SGAC in 2018, where he had tremendous experiences and met fantastic people. Deeply grateful for these opportunities, he is willing to contribute too to share them to this community.

Charles GOVILLOT
Charles GOVILLOTPrograms team

As a last-year engineering student at the French Civil Aviation University (ENAC), Charles’ ambition is to work in the vast domain of space technologies which has always fascinated him! He had the chance to study Space Engineering in Politecnico di Milano during a semester, to follow several trainings from ESA and CNES, to work at La Cité de l’Espace in Toulouse and to contribute to a cubesat club to get general knowledge on these topics and to find what interests him the most. He loves taking on new challenges and giving his best to succeed such as, for the most poignant one, organizing a conference of a French astronaut in his school. Younger, he had the chance to live in Vietnam where he became passionate about travelling, discovering curiosities and experiencing adventures! Charles is involved for the first time in SGAC with the organization of SG[France]2021 and this is a great opportunity for him to meet a community to which he shares the same interests!

Pablo MIRALLES
Pablo MIRALLESDeputy event manager & Communication team

Pablo is an industrial engineer by education, 26 year old and born in Barcelona. A lifelong space and science fiction fan, 3 years ago he turned that hobby into a career. He accepted a junior systems engineer position at GTD Barcelona in the design of ALTAIR, an air-launched small satellite rocket. He loved it, and soon became involved in the space community, collaborating with SGAC and its small satellites group and organizing SpaceUp Barcelona with a bunch of other space geeks. When he found the opportunity for a master’s in aerospace in Toulouse, the capital of European Space, he knew he couldn’t miss it. Nowadays Pablo works in AI applied to the space sector at IRT Saint Exupery, a local research institute. When he’s not coding or participating in space projects through SGAC, you’ll find him playing video-games, reading, preparing (and all too often burning!) delicious meals, and when the virus allows it, hiking around the area.

Emma BALTIDE
Emma BALTIDEDelegates & Sponsors team

Graduated from ECE Paris as an engineer in embedded systems, Emma is enrolled in a Space Systems Engineering advanced master at ISAE-SUPAERO. She is currently finishing her end of studies internship at SES in the Netherlands, in Asset Management and Contingency planning for the SES satellites fleet. She’s been part of the SGAC for one year now and participated with the SGAC team in the Mars City Design Competition 2020. She had a really nice experience there allowing her to meet and work with different people from the SGAC Project Groups. Amazed by the quality and content of SG[France]2020, she wanted to get more involved in the organization and be part of events bringing the space community together. As a young professional and space enthusiast, she believes that the young generation is key to the future of space knowledge and exploration that already benefit humans on Earth. Space innovations are part of our daily life without us really knowing. Emma thinks that space applications will expand in the future and reach more industries. She’s convinced this generation will make a difference and achieve great things working together!

Gueorguy SERAFIMOV
Gueorguy SERAFIMOVSponsors team

Recently a system engineer graduated from ISAE SUPAERO Gueorguy has been working for two years for BearingPoint, a global business consultancy firm, after graduating from ENSAM. As part of his space engineering curriculum, Gueorguy had the chance to take part in an ambitious international project named SEEDs where students, academics and professionals gathered from Italy, France and the UK, worked on the definition of an ambitious exploration program for Titan. The results of this study were officially presented to CNES and ESA and published in the 2020 International Astronautical Federation journal.
His career change decision in the space industry was motivated by the many new dynamics the sector has been facing for the last 5 to 10 years. To him, SGAC represents perfectly this new impetus for the new generation of students and young professionals willing to take part in the space journey.

Valentin BENOIT
Valentin BENOITPrograms team

Valentin is a French 27 years old entrepreneur from Brittany, now living in Paris. Graduated from Bordeaux School of Management (now KEDGE Business School), he defines himself as an open-minded multi-entrepreneur as he’s set up 2 companies in different sectors: one luxury event agency ” Paris Privé ” and one consulting company in blockchain transformation ” The Blockchain Company “. He also worked 2 years as an innovation buyer at L’Oréal and he is currently Sales Director Paris of LittleBIG Connection, 1st Market-Place of Expertise in France. He is very interested in Space, which he genuinely considers as the next revolution of the decade, so he focuses on studying disruptive applications for space data and technologies. The new space wave well symbolizes this vision. Always willing to get involved in new projects like SGAC, Valentin looks forward to organizing the next edition of SG[France]!

Marine LAUMAIN
Marine LAUMAINPrograms team

Marine is an Aerospace Engineering Student at ESTACA. Among all the extraordinary things you can find in the space sector, the 2 that she is most passionate about are Space Exploration and Earth Observation. The first one because there is still so much to discover in our giant Universe and the second one because understanding our beautiful planet isn’t only very interesting but also extremely important (especially during those days). As a student she also belongs to Asclepios, an association at EPFL in Switzerland which organizes analog missions (simulations of an extra-earth mission) “made by students for students”. Marine was part of the last SG[France] event in 2020 and as she really liked the concept, she decided to be more involved in the next one!

Willy LAO
Willy LAOLogistics team

Willy is an engineering student and will soon graduate with a Double Master’s Degree from ISAE-Supaero (Aerospace engineering) and Paul Sabatier University (Data science). As a future data analyst passionate about space and digital transformation, he is convinced that their combination can create new interesting products or change core businesses for the better. He is also the former president of the Supaero Space Section. Like SGAC, this student association has the value to promote Space as they managed to give students the opportunity to take part in ambitious projects. Among them: the building of an experimental rocket with CNES’ program PERSEUS or the design of a hybrid rocket engine with ONERA. But above all, Will loves raising funds for the charity “Pour un sourire d’enfant” to give Cambodian children the chance to go to school, or just sharing his music on a scene and his positivity while dancing salsa/bachata with people.

Quentin PARPAITE
Quentin PARPAITELogistics team

Quentin is currently studying at the French University of Civil Aviation (ENAC) in Toulouse, where he follows an aerospace telecommunications specialization and develops his passion for space-related activities everyday. He believes that space is now surrounding us in many kinds of fields and its scope and missions are increasingly spreading nowadays. This will definitely be a far-reaching challenge for this century and for the young generation that will take over, working for a sustainable space. He wishes he could contribute to it! Quentin participated in the last edition in Toulouse, and is now really delighted to take part in the organization of SG[France] 2021 with other people which share the same love for space.

SGAC France National Points of Contact

Pauline DELANDE
Pauline DELANDEFrench NPoC (Communication team)

Graduated from INSA Toulouse (Mechanical Engineering) and ISAE-Supaero (Space Systems Engineering), Pauline is now working at CNES in Toulouse as “Earth Observation Satellite Operations Engineer”. In a few words, her role is to prepare/schedule/organize satellite operations, ensure subsystem and equipment performances (for both platform and payload) and investigate anomalies. She has also a background with SGAC: in 2018, she received a SGAC-CNES scholarship to participate in IAC before joining the Executive Committee as Membership Manager. Knowing and being able to understand better how SGAC works, she wanted to organize a local event: the perfect opportunity to meet and work with/for the very dynamic SGAC community in France, while tackling a subject that is close to her heart. In parallel to being SG[France]2020 Deputy Event Manager, Pauline is also one of the 2 National Points of Contact for France.

Guillame THIRION
Guillame THIRIONFrench NPoC

Along with his M.S. in Aerospace Engineering at the French University of Civil Aviation (ENAC, Toulouse) followed by a Space Systems Engineering Advanced Master (ISAE-Supaero, France) and a Master’s degree in Geophysics (IPGP, Paris), Guillaume has focused his research on human spaceflights. Within the SpacE Exploration Development Systems project from ESA, he worked on Life Support Systems for a lunar habitat. Today, his research interests include the use of terrestrial analog sites in both understanding geophysical/geological processes on other planets as well as in the context of crewed space exploration, the adaptation and test of technologies on analogs and research about ISRU. Guillaume joined SGAC in 2017, participated in some events and eventually became one of the two National Points of Contact for France for 2019-2021. One of his main objectives at this position is to work and participate in creating a dynamic SGAC community in France.