Rachel Drummonds CV

Index/Intro

Pratchett

My interests and my CV

My name is Dr Rachel Drummond. In my free time, when I have any, I watch films, read for pleasure and cross stitch. Cross stitch is a very mathematical creative hobby. I have produced Death on a Motorbike, Death of Rats, as well as various other creations from my needle.

I am not a sportswoman, but enjoy swimming greatly. But, my absolute favourite pastime is travelling. I do not have the time or money to do all I would like to, but have been to a selection of European countries, America, Canada, Brazil, Chile, Malaysia, Australia and Russia, Japan and Nicaragua. I have created travel pages with a few photos.

Curriculum Vitae for Rachel J. Drummond

Born: 5 August 1978
London, England

University Education

Oct 02 - Dec 07
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
PhD on Calibration of the COROT spacecraft
- specifically correcting the problems of background light and jitter

Launch was 27 December 2006
Defence of my PhD 18 December 2007

Oct 00 - Sept 02
Cranfield College of Aeronautics
Master of Science in Astronautics and Space Engineering
Thesis on Eddington Mission Payload ACS Jitter Analysis
and Light Distribution Study
MSc awarded June 2003

Oct 96 - June 00
University of Kent at Canterbury
Master of Physics and Space Science with a year in Europe
First class degree with honours awarded year 2000.

The third year of my first degree was spent in France.
I did the Licence de Physique at Universite Joseph Fourier, Grenoble.
The ERASMUS experience is something I would recommend to anyone!

Secondary Education: St. Albans High School For Girls
St. Albans, Hertfordshire, UK

A-levels
June 96 Mathematics
Further Mathematics
Physics
French
General Studies
A
A
A
A
A

Other Awards
Duke of Edinburgh's Bronze Award
NICAS computing Certificates
German for Business

Languages Spoken
French - excellent oral communication
- excellent comprehension
- good written
Dutch/Flemish - excellent oral communication
- excellent comprehension
- good written
Spanish - intermediate
German - basic
- previously good, mainly forgotten
Russian - very basic
- did 6 months of 1 hour a week
- would like to do more!

Work Experience

Summer 94 Duke of Yorks Barracks
Chelsea Worked on the army database
Updated fields and input data

Nov 94 - Sept 96 Photocentre
In Asda, Southgate
London Worked developing and printing films and serving customers until the company closed down.

September 96 Southgate College
Southgate Worked in admissions for a month before I went to university

Summer 97 Caltech Pre-College Science Initiative
Caltech, Pasadena
Califonia, USA Worked for 10 weeks as part of the SURF program for undergraduates. My job was to design educational games for delivery over the Internet. Results should show on the learning.net web site

Summer 98 Mars Pathfinder Team, JPL, Caltech,
Pasadena, California, USA. Working counting marks on the Sojourner camera images. Found that these were actually caused by condensation on the CCD used

Summer 00 Astrium UK in Stevenage
England This was an 8 week position to introduce me to the company. They paid half my tuition for the Cranfield MSc course as a result

1 May 01 -
11 Sept 02 European Space Research and Technology
Centre , Noordwijk, The Netherlands. 1 year, Young Graduate Trainee contract in the Department of Industrial Matters and Technology - Technology Harmonisation Division. I received 2 extensions, the first to continue my work with the harmonisation group, and the second to carry out a project with the science department in order to complete my MSc.
1 Nov 02 Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, Katholiek Universiteit Leuven, Belgium Started a PhD position working on the calibration of the instrument for the astroseismology mission COROT - initiated by CNES

You can download my CV as a pdf here

The jobs in California are thanks to the SURF program. The Summer 98 position at JPL was particularly exciting. I counted dust grain marks on the Mars Pathfinder images - before finding that they were condensation, not dust. I also worked on a rock mapping survery, examining rock sizes and even naming rocks on Mars. Take a look at NASA's pages on Mars Pathfinder!
Find out how you can do this next year, if you are an undergraduate, on the UKSEDS homepage.
For a picture of the sunset in Joshua Tree National Park, click here!
Summer 99 was spent moving back from France and then getting a part-time job in a department store to make some money for my final year at University. The final year was a lot of work, but my Masters project was great fun. We built a rocket payload and after graduation we flew to Australia to launch it with the Australian Space Research Institute. ASRI.
Some pictures can be found on the website of one of my fellow students. Dave Smith .
After this I started my MSc at Cranfield and passed my April exams before moving to Holland to work out a one year contract with ESTEC, part of the European Space Agency. I lived in Leiden, outside Amsterdam, on a woonboot and had a great time, as can be seen on some of my other pages.

Pictures of Me

My KU Leuven page

My Travels

Space links

Don't forget to sign my guestbook.

View My Guestbook Sign My Guestbook

Or email me ptraci@geocities.com

Summer 94	Duke of Yorks Barracks Chelsea	Worked on the army database Updated fields and input data
Nov 94 - Sept 96	Photocentre In Asda, Southgate London	Worked developing and printing films and serving customers until the company closed down.
September 96	Southgate College Southgate	Worked in admissions for a month before I went to university
Summer 97	Caltech Pre-College Science Initiative Caltech, Pasadena Califonia, USA	Worked for 10 weeks as part of the SURF program for undergraduates. My job was to design educational games for delivery over the Internet. Results should show on the learning.net web site
Summer 98	Mars Pathfinder Team, JPL, Caltech, Pasadena, California, USA.	Working counting marks on the Sojourner camera images. Found that these were actually caused by condensation on the CCD used
Summer 00	Astrium UK in Stevenage England	This was an 8 week position to introduce me to the company. They paid half my tuition for the Cranfield MSc course as a result
1 May 01 - 11 Sept 02	European Space Research and Technology Centre , Noordwijk, The Netherlands.	1 year, Young Graduate Trainee contract in the Department of Industrial Matters and Technology - Technology Harmonisation Division. I received 2 extensions, the first to continue my work with the harmonisation group, and the second to carry out a project with the science department in order to complete my MSc.
1 Nov 02	Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, Katholiek Universiteit Leuven, Belgium	Started a PhD position working on the calibration of the instrument for the astroseismology mission COROT - initiated by CNES