In this episode, Cecilia Cappellin, Director of Customer Projects and Support at TICRA, discusses with Nelson Fonseca, Chief Innovation Officer at Anywaves. Cecilia shares her journey from Padova, Italy, to becoming a leader in electromagnetics at TICRA. She reflects on gender diversity, work-life harmony, and the importance of equal support for all employees.
Main points of the discussion
| Timestamps | Questions |
|---|---|
| 01:40 | Where are you from and how did you first get into STEM? |
| 04:15 | Was there someone, such as a mentor or teacher, who influenced your decision to pursue this path? |
| 04:52 | Did you have to face any challenge when choosing a career in engineering? |
| 07:36 | How did it come about to go abroad for studying and work? |
| 10:22 | When first joining TICRA, how was the integration and how was also the diversity in the company at the time, compared to what it is now? |
| 13:16 | What are your thoughts on the current societal focus on gender and diversity in engineering, and how has that shaped your perspective and experiences? |
| 17:44 | How do you think organizations or societies can continue to support diversity and inclusion, both in engineering, but in many other fields as well? |
| 21:21 | Talking about the balance between a professional career and your personal life, what are some of the tricks or strategies you implemented to try to keep that balance? |
| 24:18 | Would you like to share a last word or last advice you'd like to give to the people listening to this interview? |
About Cecilia
Cecilia Cappellin joined TICRA in 2004 and currently serves as Director of Customer Projects and Support, as well as a board member.
For the past decade, she has led numerous projects funded by the European Space Agency, focusing on electromagnetic modelling of reflector antennas. Her work includes key contributions to the Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer (CIMR) mission and the electrical design of the new dual compensated compact antenna test range for the upcoming HERTZ 2.0 facility. As a leader of the Applied Electromagnetics Team, she also plays a key role in the development and testing of TICRA’s software products and supports customers through technical assistance.
Cecilia holds an MSc in Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Siena, Italy (2004), and a PhD from the Technical University of Denmark (2007). During her PhD, she developed a novel antenna diagnostics technique for spherical near-field antenna measurements.
About Nelson
Nelson J. G. Fonseca (IEEE Fellow) received the M.Eng. degree from Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Electrotechnique, Electronique, Informatique, Hydraulique et Télécommunications (ENSEEIHT), Toulouse, France, in 2003, the M.Sc. degree from the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Quebec, Canada, also in 2003, and the PhD degree from Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse – Université de Toulouse, France, in 2010, all in electrical engineering.
He currently works as Chief Innovation Officer for Anywaves, Toulouse, France, contributing to the development of their custom space-segment antennas portfolio. He is also the founding director of 3SPACE Innovation, Paris, France, a consulting company providing support on novel ground-segment and terrestrial wireless communication antenna systems. His research interests include multiple beam antennas for space missions, beamformer theory and design, ground terminal antennas and novel manufacturing techniques. He has authored or co-authored more than 330 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, and has over 50 patents issued or pending.
Dr. Fonseca is currently serving as Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation and for the IET Microwaves, Antennas and Propagation. He is also a Topic Editor for the IEEE Journal of Microwaves. He served as Associate Editor for the Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques from 2020 to 2022, and was co-Guest Editor of two focused issues of the IEEE Microwave Magazine in 2022 and 2023. He served as Vice-Chair of the newly founded MTT-S Technical Committee on Microwave Aerospace Systems (TC-29) from 2020 to 2021 and as Chair from 2022 to 2023. He is currently serving as Vice-Chair of the 19th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP2025). He received several prizes and awards, including the Best Young Engineer Paper Award at the 29th ESA Antenna Workshop in 2007, the Best Applied Technology Antenna Paper Award at EuCAP 2022 and the 2024 IEEE Journal of Microwaves Best Paper Award.
Recent research published by Cecilia and Nelson in TAP
- Modulated Frequency-Selective Doubly Curved Sub-Reflector for a Dual-Band Multiple Spot Beam Communication Satellite Antenna System, A. Ericsson, M. Zhou, S. B. Sørensen, T. Rubæk, M. Riel and N. J. G. Fonseca, vol. 72, no. 12, pp. 9152-9163, Dec. 2024
- Low-Profile Fully Metallic Multiple-Ridge Luneburg Lens Antenna, J. Djounidi, P. Castillo-Tapia, N. J. G. Fonseca and O. Quevedo-Teruel, vol. 72, no. 6, pp. 4852-4861, June 2024
- Collimating Truncated Virtual Image Lens, O. Zetterstrom, N. J. G. Fonseca and O. Quevedo-Teruel, vol. 72, no. 5, pp. 3928-3937, May 2024
- A Contoured-Beam Reflector Satellite Antenna Using Two Doubly Curved Circular Polarization Selective Surfaces, A. Ericsson, D. Sjöberg, G. Gerini, C. Cappellin, F. Jensen, P. Balling, N. J. G. Fonseca, and P. de Maagt, vol. 69, no. 2, pp. 658-671, Feb. 2021
- Multibeam Focal Plane Arrays With Digital Beamforming for High Precision Space-Borne Ocean Remote Sensing, O. A. Iupikov, M. V. Ivashina, N. Skou, C. Cappellin, K. Pontoppidan, and C. G. M. van ’t Klooster, vol. 66, no. 2, pp. 737-748, Feb. 2018