International Day of Women and Girls in Science – portraits

Sophie Cloché – Research engineer at Aeris

I began my career with a thesis in remote sensing on the estimation of atmospheric water vapour and the detection of clouds by satellite at the LMCE in Île-de-France (now the LSCE).

Following my thesis and a postdoc in the field of remote sensing, I wanted to become an engineer. Meeting the needs of researchers, being in contact with different communities and working on more technical issues were all areas of interest that prompted me to change direction. So I worked on building databases for climate research for 5 years in various laboratories at the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL) in the Paris region, where I took up a position as a research engineer in 2001.

For several years, I worked on the development of databases, both for IPSL and for the wider community through major national and international programmes such as AMMA and Mistrals. Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate just how important it is to be as close as possible to the research teams in order to understand their needs, their way of working and how to provide the most appropriate solutions – in short, to be at the heart of the research projects. With this in mind, in 2007 I was asked to join the mission group for the Franco-Indian Earth observation mission Megha-Tropiques.

It was a real opportunity for me to be part of a scientific project and to be associated with a space mission in the making. The mission was launched in 2011 and it was a real human and technical adventure to be able to participate as closely as possible in the preparatory work for a space mission. Initially, I was in charge of the databases used by the mission’s various research groups. Little by little, my role was refined and I became the right-hand man to the mission’s PI (scientific manager) and then project manager.

All this experience has enabled me to build up my expertise in spatial data processing on the one hand and the management and development of scientific data on the other, which today gives me the following responsibilities:

1 Head of the ESPRI-OBS department at IPSL, which employs around fifteen engineers (permanent and contract) and processes and manages Earth observation data. ESPRI-OBS is responsible for managing data from the IPSL Earth Observation Centre, while also playing a national role as one of the four data centres of the AERIS National Atmosphere Centre.

2. Project manager for activities related to Earth observation space missions, which translates into my involvement in various areas (leading the IPSL space group, providing advice and expertise on the scientific ground segments of future space missions, involvement at European level in the development of satellite products, satellite data management and processing, etc.).

Clémence Cotten – Head of FAIRisation of data for the Odatis Ocean division

Head of Data FAIRisation for the Odatis Ocean cluster and manager of the database of biological samples from French marine campaigns.

After obtaining a degree in biology and ecology at the University of Nantes, I specialised in marine sciences with a multidisciplinary Masters in Oceanography and Geomatics at the University of Brest (Master EGEL). I was soon hired by Ifremer to manage and interoperate data to support public policy. A few months ago, I changed jobs. I’m now in charge of managing the database of biological samples within the CDS SISMER and I’m also responsible for the FAIRisation of data from the Odatis Ocean cluster. My job is to improve the dissemination and standardisation of the cluster’s data to make it easier to reuse. It’s a particularly exciting role, because I work on a wide range of topics, not only with scientists, but also with the IT teams, with whom we are working to develop new technologies to support data and research.

The acquisition of marine data, whether satellite or in situ, is a costly process that requires significant resources. It is therefore necessary to make this data sustainable and to disseminate it so that the entire scientific community can use it for their research. Data FAIRisation meets this objective by offering solutions to simplify the re-use of data from various sources. The aim of the Ocean Odatis cluster is therefore to support data and service centres (DSCs) by giving them the tools and resources they need to follow the FAIR principles as closely as possible, so that they can then embark on ERV, big data and other initiatives.