November 5th 2024
She graduated from Cambridge, worked on human face robots in Hong Kong, interned at NASA and studied at MIT. Now she runs an organic farm near Rossum and works as Manufacturing & Automation Engineering Team Leader at PHIX. The story of Grace Copplestone is far from ordinary.
Grace Copplestone was born in Bristol, UK, but the journey that eventually led her to Twente began in the United States. After attending the Singularity University in California – “which felt like a little dream” -, Grace moved to Boston where she followed a master’s programme at MIT Media Lab.
“It was absolutely amazing. Very hands on,” she describes. “While I got my theoretical knowledge at Cambridge University in the UK, MIT is where I learnt how to really make things.” During her studies, Grace joined a community brass band and learnt how to play the trombone, “because it is the easiest brass instrument to get noise out of”, as she says.
With Brexit on the horizon, however, she made her way back to her old continent in order to “get her foot in the door in Europe” and she ended up settling in the Netherlands.
The big change in Grace’s life came during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I couldn’t go on a planned holiday. Instead, I found an organic farm in Twente where you could volunteer in exchange for food and accommodation. I spent a week weeding, digging ditches, driving a tractor… It was wonderful,” she says. On the farm, she met her current partner. “I kept coming back and eventually moved there. Now I’m the farmer’s partner and we have a baby together.”
Finding a new life in Twente, Grace started searching for a job here. “I was looking for a technical company within biking distance from the farm and PHIX seemed like a great fit. I was very keen to work in a project-based organisation rather than a one product company like before.” Moreover, she appreciates how international the team is. “It amazes me just how many countries are represented at PHIX,” she says.
Grace began working at PHIX two years ago as a project manager and recently moved up to the position of Manufacturing & Automation Engineering Team Leader. “I lead a group of engineers who are responsible for processes ranging from polishing and dicing through to die bonding, wire bonding, and automated optical assembly. In addition, I’m responsible for a growing number of pilot projects. After we have built prototypes to verify the technical functionality, we can move into the pilot stage where we develop and scale up automated assembly processes and write all the necessary documentation to prepare for production.”
“It will be so interesting to look back in a few years and see how quickly the technology has moved forward. ”
Although the field was new to Grace, she loves working at the cutting edge of photonics. “It will be so interesting to look back in a few years and see how quickly the technology has moved forward. I also like that we get to work on projects which support such a wide range of applications, from self-driving cars to medical devices to state-of-the-art computing.”
Next to her job at PHIX, Grace continues to work on the farm. “The time I spend in the field is limited now because we have a baby, but I love to be there as much as possible, getting stuck in with my work trousers on,” she says.
The farm is still owned by an old couple who have run it for over forty years, but Grace and her partner are in the process of taking it over and setting up a nursery for edible shrubs and trees. “We all work together, and we meet every Thursday for coffee to discuss what needs to be done. It’s all very gezellig [Dutch word that could be translated as “pleasant, sociable, cosy and homey]”. I feel that we are definitely part of the noaberschap [Twents word for neighborhood].”
“I don’t know if I’d like to work on the farm full-time, but I really love having this other outlet alongside my work at PHIX,” says Grace. “There is always something to do on the farm. I have my own vegetable patch, and I’ve just harvested lots of carrots for the winter. Ultimately, I see us staying at the farm for a long time. Twente is a nice little place to have ended up.”
Are you interested in a career at PHIX?
As a rapidly growing integrated photonics packaging foundry we are always looking for new talent. Even if our current job openings aren’t an exact fit, we are eager to meet promising candidates who are experienced in photonics.
