Michel Rixen joined the European Commission as a Senior Programme Officer within the Copernicus Unit in 2022, seconded from ECMWF. Educated in Computer Engineering, Oceanography, Environmental Sciences and Business Administration, he held management positions at the NATO Undersea Research Centre, La Spezia in 2003-2011 and at the World Meteorological Organization, Geneva in 2011-2021. His research interests focus on Earth system modeling, data assimilation, Earth observation and Artificial Intelligence.