During my childhood, I was very passionate about space. Watching all those rockets being launched encouraged me to pursue a career in space. I started my career at Belgian Defence, where I gave courses on electronics and avionics. After a while, I changed my career and started working at the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BISA). At BISA, I was involved as a system engineer and program manager in space missions such as PICASSO, ALTIUS and EnVision. I also worked on the development of ground-based instruments for atmospheric monitoring; i.c. for NO2 measurements and polarization detection of auroras based on Acousto Optical Tunable Filters. Recently, I made the switch to an academic career at TU Delft where I work as a Tenure Track Assistant Professor at the faculty of Aerospace Engineering. In addition, I am also associated as a Guest Professor at KU Leuven. I would like to use my knowledge to give this Aether project a boost and to guide the team technically and personally by taking on the role of coach. Students are able to think 'out of the box', which is necessary for an innovative project like Aether.