A Young Physicist’s Journey to Aerospace 

For Otis Rea, the intense debates and strategic negotiations during high school physics competitions prepared him well for his current role as a spacecraft operations engineer at Dawn Aerospace.

Dawn is in the business of developing spaceplanes, says Otis, a member of the New Zealand team that competed at the IYPT in Singapore in 2017. “My role is primarily to ensure that our flight operations occur safely. This involves technical aspects such as risk assessments, analysis, and reports as well as non-technical aspects such as stakeholder engagement.”

“The two big components of my role are working with Dawn’s internal teams to design and implement safety mitigations, and representing Dawn to external stakeholders like the Civil Aviation Authority and Space Agency who are the regulators for our operations. Dawn is a pretty small organisation so I’ve also been involved in lots of other disciplines such as flight test, systems engineering and software.”

“A lot of aviation rules aren’t written with a spaceplane in mind, so we have to work out with the regulator what is appropriate, and what is not. It’s often a matter of figuring out why a particular rule exists – what is the intent behind it.”

Wielding a powerful tool 

His unrelenting curiosity and constant questioning are inextricably linked to one of his favourite subjects from way back. “Physics is based on trying to understand ‘why’ things occur in the manner that they do,” says Otis, who has a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Canterbury.

Thus, if he were to teach a concept in physics, he would focus on trying to understand the ‘why’ in everything. “Asking ‘why’ is a really powerful tool for focusing on the things that matter. And you should be willing to check if your explanation of ‘why’ something is happening is correct too, another fundamental physics concept!”

Otis is now based in the coastal seaport of Sligo, in the northwest coast of Ireland, where he continues to work remotely for Dawn. Just before leaving New Zealand, Otis led a project to enable Dawn to fly from the Tāwhaki National Aerospace Center. 

“This is pretty exciting as the runway is much closer to Christchurch than our previous operating location in Glentanner Aerodrome, and so will massively increase the speed of our design/build/test flight iterations. The first Dawn Mk-II Aurora flight from Τāwhaki should be happening very soon.”

Where It All Began: The Teachers Who Sparked a Career Direction 

Otis credits two teachers in Wellington High School – Murray Chisholm and Kerry Parker – for nurturing his love for physics. He met them during trials for one of the junior physics teams. “They were great at getting students to do project based learning, which I think really just encourages people to foster a sense of curiosity and try to understand what causes the natural phenomena that they see.” 

Though Otis now confidently represents organisations in discussions with external groups, it wasn’t long ago that public speaking and presentations filled him with dread. 

“I recall that the first time I gave a presentation to a problem in JYPT (a predecessor competition to IYPT), I nearly fainted from nerves during the question phase. At the time I had little to no experience in public speaking, and I lacked confidence.”

At IYPT, two years later, “I had a lot more experience under my belt,” says Otis. 

“I remember being the opposition to the Australian team in one round. The contrast to when I had just started physics tournaments was pretty stark – the confidence I had gained allowed me to present my arguments in a much more convincing manner. It’s much easier to think on the spot when you aren’t about to faint too!”

For those considering a career in STEM, Otis advises: “Take up opportunities where you can. If you really like the technical side, don’t forget to learn how to collaborate as nearly every project outside university requires teamwork. 

“Learning how to communicate your ideas is as important as having good ideas in the first place. Good ideas won’t get implemented if you don’t sell them to your team!” – written by Divina Paredes