Name: Herve Lamoureux

Job title: Electronic and Optical systems engineer

What education and qualifications do you have?

I have a French Baccalaureat (D: physics, maths, biology, chemistry) and obtained a DUT GEII in Electronics equivalent to an HND level 4.

Give an outline of your career so far

Before starting work as such, I spent two years as a 'cooperant' (volunteer) in Virlanie, a foundation for street children, Manilla, Philippines. That was for me an experience that changed my life.

Back home I first worked as a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) designer in France, but the appeal to work abroad was too strong, and after some holidays in the UK I started at UCL-MSSL also as a PCB designer.

Why did you choose this career path?

After school, you have to start somewhere, that was PCBs for me, but also I really liked UCL-MSSL for its challenging engineering environment and great atmosphere.

At first it was complex multilayer PCBs, writing test software in C and testing electronics for Solar B and Eddington, being the team leader of the Tokyo Digitizer project, and now it is optics work on a major ESA project.

What does your current work involve?

I like the fact that I can learn about new disciplines to broaden my knowledge and competences, UCL-MSSL has a great approach for personal development.

For PCBs, after receiving guidelines and schematic input from the engineer, you have to complete the creation of PCBs from computerised schematic capture to final data fabrication files and drawings. Project management, even at small scales is quite a lot of work, there is so much you have to prepare if you want to keep your deadlines and when you deal with many different people. But as of now I am only working, and learning, about optical manufacturing, alignment and tolerancing using Zemax, to prepare a feasibility study.

Hobbies and interests outside work

I like nature, used to trek a lot in France and started rock climbing in the UK in 2001. I love photography and hope to take some good pictures one day.

Herve with PCB