Owen Higgins
ESA/Hubble/Webb | DTU Space
Science Information Officer at ESA Hubble and Webb Space Telescopes
I am a graduate in astronomy and space science with experience in astrophysics and science outreach, as well as programming, data analysis and computer systems administration. I'm passionate about solving technical problems, contributing to astronomy and physics research, and sharing space research with people! I work as part of national and international teams, with excellent colleagues, developing my skills to progress these goals.
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Track Record
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Career12
As a key member of the European Space Agency's outreach team for Hubble and Webb, I write and edit texts for press releases, videos and other new products, help to review new scientific publications for potential release, liaise with scientists while preparing products, assist with science reviews on texts and social posts, manage parts of our social media presence, help to coordinate work for the team and engage with public enquiries.
My work entails assisting researchers at DTU Space with research projects in space science, mostly geomagnetism, with programming expertise and contributing domain knowledge. Recent projects I've contributed to include software to simulate core field magnetism, and processing data from geomagnetic field measuring stations in Denmark and Greenland. I also administrate IT systems at the department including our network and HPC cluster, and support researchers and students at the department in their work with these systems.
Intern assisting the European Space Agency's Outreach Team for the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. Assisting in producing products for publication based on science releases from the telescopes, coordinating work for the team, and engaging with public enquiries.
Member of the Executive Committee, responsible for handling the association's finances, managing sponsorships and requests for grants.
Part of the informal, voluntary Management Team for IFISO. Responsible for organising two online forums in Spring and Autumn 2020. In addition, assist IFISO members in collaborating and sharing knowledge between IFISO meetings, and organise to admit new members.
Member of the IAPS Executive Committee with responsibility for coordinating events organised by and sponsored by IAPS.
Represented Ireland’s student physicists on the first IOP Student Committee. Contributed to initial formation, direction and tasks of the committee. Organised events and conference on behalf of the committee and the IOP. Liaised with IOP staff, with universities and with students and groups in Ireland. Promoted the activities of the IOP locally.
Chairperson of the society committee, responsible for overall direction, finances, etc. Duties included: Planning and organising astronomy events for students and the public - Oversight and management of finances, securing grant funding for society - Cooperating with committee members to ensure completion of tasks - Liaising with academic and industry contacts across Europe and with guest speakers - Principal organiser twice of the Joint Congress of University Astronomy Societies
Completed a research project under Dr.Ray Butler entitled ‘A GIS System for Optimally Siting a Small Observatory’. The project involved using ArcMap, a geographic information systems application, to develop a tool which could automatically select an area to site an observatory based on given criteria. Data including altitude, light pollution, roads and utilities locations was utilised to select the optimal area. The tool developed with ArcMap is flexible and can be used to automatically select a site given appropriate data for anywhere in the world.
Teaching Assistant and Lab Demonstrator for CS211 Programming and Operating Systems. I was responsible for: Supervising scheduled laboratory exercises; Assisting students with work and assignments in Python programming; Liaising with students and lecturer to co-ordinate assignments; Testing and correcting assignment submissions; Providing feedback to students.
Responsible for advertising all society events to members via the mailing list and with posters on campus; assisted in responding to queries from members and the public.
Education4
Postgraduate student in the Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique on the Master in space sciences programme. Modules - Astrophysics, Extragalactic astrophysics, Radio astrophysics, Variable stars, Astrochemistry, Introduction to exoplanetology, Planetary magnetospheres and aurorae, Stellar atmospheres, Space environment, Introduction to astroparticles, Astrophysical observations, Space exploration, Remote sensing, Small bodies of the solar system, Geophysical fluid dynamics, Programming techniques, numerical methods and machine learning. Project - Analysis of EPT and SATRAM data for the assessment of the use of radiation monitor data for space weather purposes, supervised by Prof. Veronique Dehant (UCL) and Prof. Denis Grodent (ULg).
Erasmus+ exchange from ULiège for one semester, in the Institut for Fysik og Astronomi. Modules - Physics of compact objects, Advanced stellar evolution, Electronics and data acquisition. Project - Dynamical and numerical effects of supernovae in binaries, supervised by Thomas Tauris for the Project in Astrophysics module.
Modules - Applied mathematics, mechanics, computer science, programming, astronomical data analysis, stellar and interstellar medium astrophysics, light and optical physics, thermal physics, electricity and magnetism, particle physics, quantum mechanics, solid state physics, lasers and spectroscopy, computational and experimental physics. Project - Observing with I-LOFAR; supervised by Dr. Matt Redman. Worked with the new I-LOFAR radio telescope as one of the first student users of the instrument, and made one of the first detections of a radio pulsar with it using the new,state-of-the-art high time-frequency cluster REALTA.
Subjects - English, Irish, French, mathematics, physics, history, economics.
Volunteering2
IAPS is affiliated to the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics as the International Commission on Physics Students (AC5). I was a member of the Council which coordinates joint and shared activities between the Association and the Union, in the inaugural year of the partnership.
Responsible for organising, pricing and replenishing stock - Operated till and performed salesas cashier - Liaised with customers and manager, handled customer queries