Alexandre  Payez

Alexandre Payez

Research scientist
R&D Satellite Observations

About me

My background is in astroparticle physics phenomenology — from 2007, when I started my PhD, until 2015 with a postdoc in the Theory group at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg. I then joined the European Space Agency as an ESA Internal Research Fellow in Mission Analysis, to study interplanetary missions to deflect hazardous asteroids on a collision course with the Earth, and moreover worked on the mission-analysis side of the Mars Sample Return Carrier mission, a CDF study in collaboration with NASA to bring back samples of Martian soil. I have been working as a Remote Sensing researcher since 2019, first at the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium with Steven Dewitte (Earth's Radiation Budget), before joining the group of Ad Stoffelen here at KNMI in 2021. The focus of my work at KNMI has mainly been on the development of the ESA Earth-Explorer mission Harmony, from phase A onwards: I have been working in both the HEEPS-Opti and Harmony-Science teams since before the successful selection of the mission.

Projects

Research