Our experts

Christine Fallet

CNES, France

Christine Fallet is the CARIOQA-PMP project coordinator. She brings extensive expertise in spatial systems and project development.

Christine has been working for CNES since 1992,  where she was able to work in various space domains. She started her career as a Satellite Engineer at the TELECOM Satellite Control Center, participating in in-orbit satellite control, station-keeping operations, and orbit and manoeuvre calculations. Later, Christine was in charge of developing the mission mode of the Attitude and Orbit Control sub-system (AOCS) of the DEMETER satellite and for the follow-up of the development of the AOCS and the system of the geostationary satellite STENTOR. During her 10-year experience as an AOSC architect, Christine was able to manage various satellites and missions. Since 2014, Christine has been a space system expert in charge of the coordination of preliminary projects for different applications (Earth observation, IoT, …). In this function, she leads and carries out pre-project studies in collaboration with the thematic experts, the end users of the mission and the technical experts. She carried out the Phase 0 studies for GRICE and CARIOQA.

Karin Kiewisch

DLR, Germany

Karin is CARIOQA-PMP’s Programmatic Coordinator. She enjoys working at the interface of science, policy and international cooperation at the German Space Agency.

Karin has been working for DLR for 10 years, coordinating and funding research on behalf of the German government: During the first 5 years she has been fostering European and international research cooperation through bilateral funding schemes and European Coordination and Support Actions such as ERA-NETs.

In 2018, she was transferred to the German Space Agency in order to support physics and materials science research under microgravity conditions and technology development for space applications. As a trained quantum chemist, Karin has a special liking for quantum technology projects. She is in charge of the agency’s QT flagships projects BECCAL and MAIUS and coordinates the Quantum Technology activities at the German Space Agency.

In CARIOQA-PMP, Karin combines her expertise in EU cooperation projects, roadmap development, stakeholder management and space quantum technology: As Programmatic Coordinator, she leads the task for the development of the technical and programmatic roadmap and its validation by European scientists and policy-makers. She supports the organisation of the Scientific and Technology Advisory Board and the project’s dissemination activities.

Naceur Gaaloul

Leibniz University Hannover, Germany

Naceur is the head of the “Theory of Quantum Sensing” group at the Institute of Quantum Optics supported by the DFG’s Excellence Cluster QuantumFrontiers. He is pushing the quantum engineering of ultracold gases to realize precision measurements for fundamental physics and inertial sensing applications.

Naceur has been working for the Leibniz University for 15 years supporting the QUANTUS project (DLR) which pioneered the deployment of Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) in microgravity. Later, he delivered theory support to several space projects such as the MAIUS (DLR) sounding rocket mission putting the first BEC in space in 2017 and is active at the core team of ESA’s STE-QUEST proposal for an M-mission (phase 0 and A). Presently, he is coordinating a number of national, European and international activities (NASA’s ISS Cold Atom Lab) and projects aiming to strengthen the presence of quantum sensors in the space environment by unlocking their quantum advantage. Naceur enjoys working in large collaborations and promotes the maturity of the quantum physics community to pursue challenging quests such as probing the interface between General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics or detecting gravitational waves with atom interferometers.

In CARIOQA-PMP, Naceur is helping extend the realm of quantum sensing to Earth Observation. His team is involved in the precise design and simulations of quantum protocols to realize the pathfinder mission objectives at the atomic level. Moreover, he actively supports the scenario building of a geodesy mission that would put a quantum sensor in orbit together with a multidisciplinary circle of experts in Earth sciences and space physics.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/naceur-gaaloul-ab924b30

Federica Migliaccio

Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Federica Migliaccio is full professor of geodesy and geomatics at Politecnico di Milano, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her main research field is satellite geodesy, with particular interest in satellite gravimetry.

Federica participated in the study and data analysis of the ESA GOCE mission for the recovery of the Earth gravity field by the “space-wise” approach. In recent years her research regarded satellite gravimetry studies based on quantum sensors, for the determination of models of the Earth gravity field. Such studies were pursued in projects funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), proposing different mission concepts: MOCASS (quantum satellite gradiometry) and MOCAST+ (quantum interferometric sensors combined with atomic clock data). At the moment she is involved in the ESA project QSG4EMT (Quantum Space Gravimetry for monitoring Earth’s Mass Transport processes) for the analysis of QSG mission architectures that can optimally recover the time variable part of the gravity field of the Earth related to mass transport processes and in the Horizon Europe project CARIOQA-PMP (Cold Atom Rubidium Interferometer in Orbit for Quantum Accelerometry – Pathfinder Mission Preparation) for the preparation of a European Quantum Pathfinder Mission.

In the CARIOQA-PMP project Federica Migliaccio is team leader of the Politecnico di Milano team. She brings in her expertise in the development of the CARIOQA-PMP tools for the definition of optimal mission scenarios through validation by simulations. She also contributes to the definition of the scientific users needs, particularly for applications based on the monitoring of mass and mass transport in the Earth system.

https://satgeo.dica.polimi.it/