Hi Simon, thank you for sharing your story with us and the geodesy community! First, can you give us your ‘classical work intro’ so that we get an idea of where you are working and what your field of interest is?
I am currently working at Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)’s Earth Observation Centre (EOC) as a working student, while at the same time studying for a Master’s degree at TU Munich (TUM), under the Earth Oriented Space Science and Technology (ESPACE) programme. Currently, I am in my second year of studies, with the thesis coming up shortly. At DLR, my work mainly focuses on Tandem-X‘s Digital Elevation Model (DEM) product and its related applications. In school, I specialised in the remote sensing direction, with modules focusing more on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and its interferometric version i.e. InSAR.
Figure courtesy: Öykü Koç
How do you explain to your friends and family what you are doing as a job?
Since radar and satellite are not common technologies known to many people, I usually go with the simplified explanation that my study and job mainly focus on taking photos of the Earth and analysing them in different ways. Of course, this is not accurate since radar is not an optical sensor like cameras, but fundamentally they serve the same purpose of trying to understand how and why certain phenomena happen on Earth.
Do you have any work-related habits or anything you do that you cannot work without (e.g. coffee, music, …)? Are there any other quirks we should know about?
Music at work is essential. Without music, work becomes boring, yet the music has to be non-distracting. For example, music without lyrics is the best, e.g. classical music, followed by music from a language that I don’t speak well, e.g. German music. At the same time, I hope that through listening to more German music, my German language can improve :p
Would you like to share a bit about your background? For example, what and where did you study, and how did you get here? Is there anything that you are particularly passionate about?
I was born and raised in Singapore, where I did my Bachelor’s at the National University of Singapore (NUS). I have an Engineering background since my Bachelor’s was in Engineering Science. However, after graduating, I went on to work in a defence company in Singapore that focuses on radar and satellite for defence applications. I found these technologies particularly intriguing, especially with the idea that we can remotely ‘sense‘ something from such a far distance of 500 km or more. This sparked my interest in such technologies and I realised there is a lot more that I need to understand and learn about.
Using remote sensing for defence applications was not particularly interesting to me, hence I read different papers on available applications and research for radar remote sensing satellites. I found many papers about TerraSAR-X and Tandem-X published by DLR and TUM. Papers about different InSAR and TomoSAR techniques and applications for Earth and urban observations were especially interesting. This motivated me to venture into the unknown to quit my job and study Master’s here in Munich. It was definitely a big step forward, leaving behind the familiar environment and stable life. But I believe in pursuing one’s passion, especially while one is still young and ‘free‘.
In our introductory blog post we mentioned an image of the “typical geodesist”. How many geodesists do you know that differ from that image? In what ways do you feel not represented by that image? Do you feel as a part of the geodetic community? If you’re comfortable sharing: Were there any situations where you felt excluded, not heard, made feel small or uncomfortable in any way for reasons of your identity, looks, origin or background?
Figure courtesy: Öykü Koç
Honestly, I don’t know much about stereotypes of geodesists since I have not been in this field for long. However, with my engineering background, I certainly sense slight differences to the geodetic community, especially with the different things that interest me in comparison to my colleagues and classmates who have a more geodetic background. Nonetheless, we respect each other’s interests and passions, independent of the study fields in engineering, technology, or geodesy. Talking about identity or origin, I don’t feel particularly excluded in school, probably due to the multi-national distribution of TUM’s student population, with half of my classmates coming from Asia, while the other half is from Europe. However, at DLR, I do feel slightly different from the rest, especially since my German is not good. Also, the cultural differences between Asia and Europe are still evident when talking about past experiences. There, we don’t have much in
common which makes it harder to connect on a deeper level. Still, the environment in our department is friendly and welcoming for someone like me who is much younger than the average.
Out of curiosity, do you think your experience would be different if you were somewhere else? Do you think knowing these stereotypes would affect you/your journey? Are you planning on continuing in research or academia?
Yes, definitely, my experience would be very different somewhere else. For example, in Singapore or in Asian countries, there are not as many job opportunities in the field of remote sensing. Here in Europe, the community is larger and has a longer history, so that job opportunities in companies, start-ups, universities and research institutions are more common. Thankfully, even before knowing these differences, I chose Germany to advance my passion in this area.
However, thinking back, even after learning about possible kinds of stereotypes, I would still make the same decision and choose remote sensing as my career path no matter which country I am going to live in. This is because I value the meaning of my work more than the achievable salary. Moving forward, I am still unsure whether to continue in academia since this will be a long journey and sometimes academia is more involved in publishing papers than implementing practical systems or tools, which I find myself more interested in.
When you think about a couple of decades from now on, what do you think the geodetic community will look like? Do you have any suggestions for changes that could help break the stereotype?
I believe the best version of a geodetic community is one that no longer feels unfamiliar to the general public. For example, we can explain our work as simply as machine learning or chatGPT are discussed in today’s society. In these fields, even a layperson who does not understand how these technologies work can still have a conversation because of their personal experience using it, or because they have friends working in these fields. This is especially true in the Asian context, where the idea of geodesy is rather foreign and even frowned upon when one chooses to study or work in this area because of the stereotypical view that a geodetic job is not well-paid.
Hence, we can change this by letting more people know about the field of geodesy and its contribution to society despite being a less ‘sexy‘ or trendy field. A blog like this EGU blog post will definitely help us take a step forward in this direction, coupled with more publicity on social media channels like LinkedIn and Instagram, so that more people get to know the field of geodesy and what can be achieved if one chooses to venture into this path.
Thanks Simon for contibuting to our series and sharing your experience! Did you get enspired as a reader? We would love to hear your story. Contact our team via this form to share your story.
Edited by Bene Aschenneller & Öykü Koç
