Ziyaad Soreefan is the Technical Lead in the Space Unit at the Mauritius Research and Innovation Council (MRIC). He was the Co-Investigator on the First Mauritian Satellite Project, MIR-SAT1. He joined the MRIC in 2017 and was involved in several projects. In 2018, he was part of the engineers’ team that won the 3rd round of the UNOOSA/JAXA KiboCUBE Programme. In this project, he was involved in every step of the satellite, ground station, and registration processes.
In June 2021, when the satellite was deployed into space, he controlled and operated the spacecraft from the ground station at the MRIC until it re-entered the earth’s atmosphere. In parallel, he investigated how satellite data from Sentinels could be helpful to Mauritius. He is currently working on new satellite avenues such as R&D, use of the MRIC ground station to track other satellites, satellite data applications, and collaborations with international partners on space technology to push the
Mauritian space initiative further.
He holds a BEng (Honours) and an MSc in Aerospace Engineering from Brunel University, UK. Upon completing his studies, he spent three years in the aviation industry in Mauritius. He is a Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society. He recently achieved Master System Tool Kit (STK) Certification level.