Personal Stories
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue4 1–31 May 2020
Dr Joice Mathew
In a hilly village in south India, on a hot summer night, after a long day spent playing cricket, a young boy gazed at the sky and wondered what he would be when he grew up. A sky full of stars was the picture that greeted Joice Mathew as a young boy. His mom would join him occasionally on stargazing nights. Pointing out the constellations to her, kindled a flame of interest in stars and space. This interest was further nourished by teachers, friends and books. However, after high school, he opted for a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering, considering the immediate job prospects. While working in industry after his bachelor's, serendipitously Joice came across an application for a master course in astronomical instrumentation at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore (IIA), India. It was an opportunity to revisit his old passion with the newly acquired knowledge in engineering. He applied for it and was selected and thus began a career of research in astronomy and space technology.
The M-Tech-Ph.D programme allowed Joice to continue his Ph.D in IIA. There he was introduced to electro-optical space instrumentation and space exploration using small satellite platforms. He and his team developed small-scale optical payloads to be flown on CubeSat and high-altitude balloon platforms. For his thesis, he designed and developed a compact imaging payload to be placed onboard a proposed lunar mission, to perform Ultraviolet (UV) sky surveys from the lunar surface. In recognition of his work, he was awarded the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), USRA, TX, Career award. During his tenure at IIA, Joice also co-founded the Arksa Research Labs, a start-up company focusing on electro-optical solutions for space application, in 2016 with three other colleagues.
After his Ph.D, Joice worked as a visiting instrument scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, in Germany, on the recently launched Solar Orbiter mission (a joint project by ESA & NASA). Soon after, he joined ANU in May 2019 as an instrument scientist at the Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre (AITC), RSAA. He is primarily working on the Emu infrared space mission as well as on the space qualification testing at the National Space Test Facility (NSTF). He is also involved in the development of a time-of-flight metrology system for a formation flying nano-satellites system and as well as on high altitude balloon experiments for the transient sky survey in the UV domain.
His interests outside work include playing cricket and football, trekking, cooking and recently playing tennis.
