It is with great pleasure, we are announcing Driss Kouach as the new Project Manager for MSE. Welcome Driss!

Driss is a Senior Research Engineer at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).  He earned a BS and MS degree in Mechanical Engineering at University of Bordeaux-France. After that, he joined the National Institute of Universe Sciences (INSU) in 1991.

From 1991 to 2001, he has contributed at LESIA Laboratory (Observatoire de Paris-Meudon) to multiple space missions for the French, European and American space agencies (CNES, ESA, NASA) for the exploration of the solar system (Mars, Saturn-Titan, Venus and comets).  He was deeply involved in the design, development and qualification of infrared embedded spectrographs on board on Venus Express, Mars Express, Cassini-Huygens and Rosetta missions.

Over the last 23 years, he was leading the engineering group at Observatoire Midi Pyrénées, Toulouse-France.  In the meantime, Driss was the system engineer for the ChemCam instrument (LIBS geochemical analysis) on-board on Curiosity Rover (NASA – MSL Mission), exploring Mars planet surface since 2012.From 2010 to 2019, Driss was the Project Manager of SPIRou instrument, actually operating at CFHT. 

Driss, we are happy to have you with us!