“As a child, astronomy did not attract me especially. But I’ve been successful.”
Itziar Garate López is in Paris, in the laboratory of Dynamic Meteorology, conducting a postdoctoral research. Asked if being in Paris is like a dream, he confesses that not, in fact, after completing the doctorate, he preferred to stay in Euskal Herria: “Now I am very happy and I didn’t think it was so, because I had been two years away (in the Canary Islands) and now I preferred to stay at home. But they offered me to come here. And I liked the project so much and now my tutor encouraged me so much, in the end I came and now I am very pleased.”
In fact, what is being done now is a complement to the research carried out in the thesis. In his thesis he studied a whirlpool in the pole of Venus from the data obtained by the Virtis spectrometer of the spacecraft Venus Express. “From there I knew some characteristics of the trailer, but it was not enough to understand it. Now I will have the opportunity to analyze that same trailer in another way: by computer simulations, precisely.”
It continues, therefore, with the same research topic, but will use another tool to analyze the topic. Thus, the first months in Paris will realize this methodology.
In addition to the methodology, research has changed its way of living. However, Garate warns that everything is related. “In short, I compare what has come out of the simulation with real observations.” This is what makes the project so attractive for Garate. Space is also important: “This laboratory has a good example of the whole atmosphere of Venus, so I have come here. The problem is that the model in juxtu polo is not so appropriate and my trailer is there. So my first task is to improve the model to work better on the pole.”
In this improvement he works with the members of the laboratory. Garate says that he has no problem of work, people have welcomed and, being the working language the English, adapts well. In informal relations, however, they say they speak French, “fast”, and it costs him more to follow the conversations, but he believes it will be a “matter of time”.
Route not planned
Taking into account the passion that speaks of his research, no one could think that since childhood he wanted to be an astronomer. But it is not: “As a child astronomy did not attract me especially. But he had ease in mathematics, and he was sure he wanted to learn science. Then I decided for physics because it seemed to me that in the future I would have more opportunities and liked, of course. While studying physics, I made an intimate friend who was clear that I wanted to study astrophysics and told me a little. I started attending astronomy conferences, I had knowledge of astrophysicist Agustín Sánchez Lavega, I got in touch with him and got into this driven by him.”
Finally he finished his thesis in the team of Planetary Sciences that he directs and recognizes that he is more and more at ease in that world: “I got closer.”
Itziar Garate Lopez was born in 1986 in Zarautz. He begins his studies of physics in Leioa, but to specialize in astrophysics he travels to Tenerife. Thus, he graduated from the University of La Laguna. He subsequently received a doctorate from the School of Engineering of Bilbao, in the Group of Planetary Sciences. Meanwhile, he spent three months in the Netherlands, in the ESTEC centre of ESA. Before starting the postgraduate course, he has taught at the engineering school. Now, in the laboratory of Dynamic Meteorology of Paris, a postdoctoral research is carried out.
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