Curriculum vitae of the author

Address: chemin de Mureta 2, CH-2072 St.-Blaise, Switzerland
Email: zago@csemne.ch

Born on December 14, 1949, in Basel, Switzerland

Dual nationality: Swiss and Italian

Experience Summary:
Experience in inter- and pluridisciplinary engineering covering in particular the fields of structures, thermal analysis, opto-mechanical devices, environmental impact problems, engineering computer applications, measurements and tests.
Main directions of project work:

• Management and coordination of pluridisciplinary projects.
• Interaction of structures and equipment items with their atmospheric, thermal, dynamic, seismic environment.
• Mathematical modeling of processes and physical phenomena.
• Engineering of opto-mechanical systems
• Technical and scientific computer applications.

• Degree ( Laurea) in Aeronautical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, 1973
• PhD, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1995

Professional History:

• Project Manager and Systems Engineer, Centre Suisse d'Electronique et Microtechnique, Neuchâtel, Switzerland (1995- ): engineering and management of space and astronomical technology projects.
• Engineering consultant (1993-1994)
• Senior Project Engineer at ESO, European Southern Observatory, Munich, Germany (1984-1993): in charge of all study and design work for the civil engineering and the telescope enclosures for the Very Large Telescope project (see below). In depth experience in the interdisciplinary system design of astronomical observatories and related functional, structural, thermal, wind and seeing problems.
• Senior Scientist, Atlas Copco Research Center, Switzerland (1981-84).

Mathematical models in impact phenomena, tunnelling operation and rock mechanics. Research in the technology of composite materials.
• Group Leader, Space Systems, PILATUS Aircraft Ltd, Switzerland (1974-1981).

Spacecraft engineering, aircraft performance estimation, structural and thermal analysis, full scale tests and measurements.

• Tip-til and chopping mechanism for the 2-m SOFIA airborne astronomical telescope
• ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), made of four 8-meter astronomical telescopes combining their light beams, to be installed in Chile (under development, expected completion around 1999).
• Design and construction of a 15-meter inflatable and retractable dome.
• ARIANE space launcher: shroud thermal design and various full scale tests: separation tests in the vacuum chamber, static load tests, modal survey and acoustic tests.
• Mathematical modelisation of various rock mechanics and excavation problems.
• Image processing for automatic on-line inspection.
• Hybrid carbon fibre-amorphous metal composites.
• Aircraft loads computer program.