Born on April 5, 1995, Tiberiu Ceccotti is an Italian-Romanian aerospace engineer and optical designer with a strong passion for solving complex engineering challenges. Currently based in Delft, Netherlands, he specializes in optical design, opto-mechatronics, and space engineering. With expertise in high-end optical systems, physical optics modeling, and nanomaterials, he is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of technology in metrology, laser communications, and remote sensing applications.

Education and Academic Background

Tiberiu pursued his Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology (2017-2020), where he specialized in spaceflight, opto-mechatronics, and MEMS devices. His thesis, conducted in collaboration with TNO, focused on integrating and modeling a metasurface spectropolarimeter for space applications. Prior to that, he completed his Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Pisa (2014-2017), graduating cum laude with a thesis on equilibrium near the Collinear Lagrangian points.

Professional Experience

Tiberiu currently works as an Optical Designer & Scientist (Medior) at TNO (since March 2019), where he designs and tests advanced optical setups and prototypes for metrology, laser communication, and industrial applications. His role involves:

• Developing optical models for STOP analysis, tolerancing, and physical optics simulations using Zemax, FRED, Python, and Lumerical Ansys.
• Designing and testing nanomaterials for miniaturized optical devices applicable in both terrestrial and space-based remote sensing.
• Conducting electromagnetic analysis of 3D multi-layered nanostructures and developing new multi-scale modeling algorithms.
• Integrating, aligning, and testing complex opto-mechatronic setups in laboratory environments.
• Evaluating the feasibility of low-TRL (Technology Readiness Level) concepts for new instruments.
• Supervising MSc students and presenting work to stakeholders.

His work has led to publications in optical engineering, particularly in the areas of freeform mirror systems and metamaterial-based spectropolarimetric systems.

Before TNO, Tiberiu gained experience at Rolls-Royce (2018) in the UK as an Engineering Intern & System Integrator within the Installations Subsystem of the Ultrafan® Demo. There, he contributed to requirement translation, system traceability, and acoustic-based burst pipe detection, developing a Python-based FEniCS simulation tool.

Additionally, he worked as a Teaching Assistant at TU Delft (2017-2018), providing support in Mechanics of Materials, Classic Mechanics, and Dynamics, while also improving digital teaching materials.