Beatriz Sánchez De La Villa
Beatriz Sánchez De La Villa (Spain), Systems Engineer in the Concurrent Design Facility at ESA ESTEC, interviewed for International Women and Girls in Science Day 2023.
Q. What’s your background? Tell us more about your path in ESA.
I am an aeronautical and aerospace engineer. I have been working in industry in the aeronautics domain for the A350 Programme at Airbus for a couple of years, before joining ESA four and half years ago, first as cost engineer graduate trainee and currently as a contractor as well as cost engineer. During my YGT experience I had the chance to participate in a couple of CDF studies as Assistant Systems Engineer – which was a great experience to broad my knowledge not only as a systems engineer but also as a cost engineer, being the latest an inherent branch of the systems engineering discipline – having now the opportunity to have the system engineer role in MATHES CDF Study.
Q. Which mission concept study has been the most interesting for you?
This is a quite difficult question since every single mission has their own challenges and peculiarities. However, if I have to choose, I would say the science missions, and the human exploration missions which eventually will take humans to Moon again, Mars and beyond.
Q. If you could design a mission from scratch, what would it be?
A mission to build a spacecraft/habitat that could take humans to Mars and beyond much faster than the current technology allows.
Q. What’s your perception of the representation of women in STEM jobs in ESA?
I think that the general perception is quite positive, and a good representation is in place at ESA. I am just remembering now an old story from my university where initially, when the aerospace degree was created, there was no female toilet in the building since indeed it was a male degree. We went from that to have a representation of around 20-25% of female students when I was doing my degree, so this is a clear sign that times are changing generation after generation. Of course, there is always room for improvement so that this representation does not stop at university level but goes also beyond, up to leadership roles. I am happy to work in an organisation that leads by example and is also emphases the importance of the education in all this change.