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Dr. Audrey Vorburger

“14 years and three children later, there is not a single day that I regret completely changing the direction of my work!​”

Like many of us, I was fascinated by space from an early age. However, I did not think there was a realistic chance of pursuing such a career in Switzerland. Therefore, after high school I went to ETH to study electrical and information engineering, a field that seemed to offer many exciting job opportunities. During my four and a half years at ETH, however, I kept being drawn to space exploration, so I took a leap of faith and applied for a PhD position in space science at the University of Bern. 14 years and three children later, there is not a single day that I regret completely changing the direction of my work.​

Although I have never regretted the career path I chose, I can’t say it has always been easy. For the compulsory postdoc position, my husband and I had to move abroad for a year and a half with a one-year-old child. My work as a space scientist required extensive international travel – from America to the North of Sweden and the South of India -, and still does, which is not always easy for the family, either. But when you see the excitement in your children’s faces when you tell them about your work, or when you are invited to join two European Space Agency committees to discuss ESA’s next flagship mission or Europe’s future plans for human and robotic exploration of the Moon and Mars, those are moments that give you renewed momentum to push onward. To space and beyond 😉