Profile

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Brian Zielinski-Smith

    • About Me:

      I live in Cambridgeshire, enjoying time with my family. I am an active STEM ambassador, school governor, sci-fi enthusiast and runner. I have a real love of travel and experiencing different cultures. I am a Technical Director with a new space company developing suborbital rockets to help develop the UK’s space program.

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      My background is with vibration analysis and material science. But my major passion is space and talking to people about space. I have a degree in engineering, and later focused on understanding needs from researchers and industry to translate those into market solutions to make peoples lives better.

    • My pronouns are:

      He/Him

    • My Work:

      I am a Technical Director at a new space company in Norwich, developing suborbital rockets to make microgravity more accessible to improve our fundamental understanding of science.

    • My Typical Day:

      A day in the life of me, typically involves waking up at 6am to have breakfast, feed the cats, read a summary of the news and set my plan for the day, and any high priority actions. This is followed by getting the kids up, getting them ready for the day.

      The rest of the day usually involves working, on calls with scientists and other players in the space sector, a run at lunch, followed by picking my children up after school, giving them dinner and getting set for the following day. Sometimes there are some late night calls to different countries depending on timezones.

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      Developing a rocket experiment to be delivered in school under the banner of STEM, to encourage students to get into a career in STEM/Space.

    My CV

    • Current Job:

      Technical Services Director

    • Employer:

      Gravitilab Aerospace Services

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        non-boring space enthusiast

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        An engineer

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        No

        If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

        A childcare worker

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        Jurassic 5

        What's your favourite food?

        Pizza

Questions answered by Brian

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