René Christian Castberg
My name is René Christian Castberg. I was born in Singapore on the 13th of April 1978. As my father was working for Det Norske Veritas (DNV) we moved around quite a bit — Singapore, Malaysia, England, Holland. I followed the British schooling system during those years before moving back to Norway.
I have a Masters in Chemical Physics from the University of Edinburgh, a Masters in Condensed Matter Physics from the University of Oslo, and a PhD in Physics also from the University of Oslo — where my thesis focused on the impact of electric fields on the alignment of clay particles.
I currently work as a Data Scientist at Orange Business (formerly Basefarm), in the Data Driven Solutions division.
Work Experience
| Period | Company | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 2020 – present | Orange Business (formerly Basefarm) | Data Scientist — Data Driven Solutions division |
| Aug 2014 – 2019 | DNV GL | Researcher and Data Scientist |
| Aug 2009 – Dec 2009 | Smartclub | Sales Staff — Non-perishable goods |
| Sept 2004 – Aug 2005 | AkerKværner | IT Support — User and hardware support |
| June 2003 – Sept 2003 | Det Norske Veritas | Researcher — Access Database Programming |
| June 2000 – Sept 2002 | Det Norske Veritas | Summer Staff — IT Hardware Support |
| Sept 1998 – Sept 1999 | Det Norske Veritas | Support Technician — IT Hardware Support |
| Jan 1998 – June 1999 | Asker Svømmeklubb | Assistant Trainer — Swimming instruction |
| Sept 1997 – Sept 1998 | Royal Norwegian Air Force | Assistant — Explosive Ordnance Disposal; compulsory military service at Rygge Airbase |
Education
| Period | Institution | Degree / Programme |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2009 – July 2014 | University of Oslo | PhD in Physics Avanserte materialer og komplekse systemer group Thesis: "Impact of electric fields on the alignment of Clay particles" Supervisors: Prof K. J. Måløy, Prof J. O. Fossum, Prof E. G. Flekkøy |
| Sept 2006 – Aug 2008 | University of Oslo | Masters in Condensed Matter Physics Thesis: "Characterisation and calibration of optical tweezers" Supervisor: Prof K. J. Måløy |
| Sept 1999 – June 2004 | University of Edinburgh | Masters in Chemical Physics Thesis: "Using Solvated Density Functional Theory to Obtain NMR spectra for Azo Dyes" Supervisors: Dr. S. Bates and Dr. A. Jones |
| Sept 1994 – June 1997 | Nesbru Videregående skole | International Baccalaureate Preceded by British and international schools in Singapore, Malaysia, England and the Netherlands |
Certifications
| Period | Provider | Certification |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2026 - | Databricks | Databricks Certified Associate Developer for Apache Spark The Databricks Certified Associate Developer for Apache Spark certification exam assesses the understanding of the Apache Spark Architecture and Components and the ability to apply the Spark DataFrame API to complete basic data manipulation tasks within a Spark session. These tasks include selecting, renaming and manipulating columns; filtering, dropping, sorting, and aggregating rows; handling missing data; combining, reading, writing and partitioning DataFrames with schemas; and working with UDFs and Spark SQL functions. In addition, the exam will assess the basics of the Spark architecture like execution/deployment modes, the execution hierarchy, fault tolerance, garbage collection, lazy evaluation, Shuffling and usage of Actions and broadcasting, Structured Streaming, Spark Connect, and common troubleshooting and tuning techniques, Individuals who pass this certification exam can be expected to complete basic Spark DataFrame tasks using Python. |
| Feb 2025 - | Microsoft | DP-700 Microsoft Certified: Fabric Data Engineer Associate As a Fabric Data Engineer, you should have subject matter expertise with data loading patterns, data architectures, and orchestration processes. |
| July 2023 - | Microsoft | DP-100 Azure Data Scientist Associate certification Manage data ingestion and preparation, model training and deployment, and machine learning solution monitoring with Python, Azure Machine Learning and MLflow. |
Courses & Training
| Year | Course |
|---|---|
| 2017 | Apache Spark Tuning and Best Practices |
| 2016 | Spark Masterclass (Hortonworks) |
| 2016 | Data Science with Apache Spark |
| 2013 | PADI Advanced Open Water Diving Course |
| 2007–2014 | Various cooking and food related courses |
| 2006 | Self-development and career planning (Reaktorskolen) |
| 2006 | Beginners German Level 1 — 20 hours (Folkeuniversitetet) |
| 1999 | Diving CMAS one star — 20 hours |
| 1998 | C++ Programming — 50 hours (Royal Norwegian Air Force voksenopplæringen) |
| 1997 | Beginners Russian — 40 hours (Royal Norwegian Air Force voksenopplæringen) |
| 1996 | Swimming Instructor — 20 hours (Barnas Svømmeskole) |
Language Skills
- English Highly proficient
- Norwegian Highly proficient
- Dutch Highly proficient
Interests
- 💻 Computers & Programming
- 🔌 Electronics & Microcontrollers
- 📷 Photography
- 🍳 Cooking & Food
- 🏊 Swimming & Diving
- 🚴 Cycling
Personal Information
- Nationality
- Norwegian and Dutch
- Marital status
- Married
- Address
- Tiurveien 2, 1534 Moss, Norway
- Phone
- +47 986 91 467
- Website
- rene.castberg.org
- Main competence
- Physics and Chemical Physics education. Broad experience within computing. Curious, solution- and goal-orientated.
- References
- Available on request
Contact
The best way to reach me is by email at rene@castberg.org.
I am not interested in sales, advertising, or any other commercial offerings.