ZTF Faces

Erez Zimmerman

PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Where was your starting point and how did you discover astronomy?

I grew up in Haifa, northern Israel, a really beautiful mountaineous city on the coast of the eastern Mediterranean. This is also where I lived most of my life and where I attended school from kindergarten to a BSc in Physics at the Technion (Israel’s Institute of Technology). Growing up, I was always amazed by space and astronomy so after my BSc, I decided to pursue an MSc in the Weizmann Institute of Science, where I am now working on my PhD. I now live in Tel Aviv with my wife whom I married just last month :)

How did you discover ZTF?

I joined ZTF in my MSc when I joined Avishay Gal-Yam’s group here in Weizmann. This was also the first time I was working in astronomy, which has always fascinated me. As part of Avishay’s group, I’ve been working on the ZTF infant supernovae program in which we are constantly on the hunt for supernovae detected as soon as possible after they explode.

What are you playing with in the ZTF playground?

My goal for the past year was to obtain a very early UV spectrum of an infant supernova showing narrow ionization lines (flash features) in its very early spectra. These lines originate from material thrown by the progenitor star prior to its terminal explosion. Such a spectrum can only be obtained with the Hubble space telescope, on which I had an approved program that we have recently activated on SN2023ixf - the nearest supernova in a decade. I am currently working on a paper describing this supernova which will include analysis of the UV spectra showing for the first time flash features in the UV.

Where do you want to steer your rocket in the future?

In the near future, I am focused on my PhD studies. As PhD programs in Israel are quite long (4.5 years), I still have plenty of time to study more objects and explore more directions in time-domain astronomy.

If you were not an astronomer, what would you be?

If I was not an astronomer I would probably work in tech, probably as a data scientist. My wife is a data scientist and I am always surprised to see how similar my work is to her work on non-astronomy-related data.

A book that shook your worldview?

Growing up I was always fascinated by space and astronomy, and my favorite book as a kid was a 90s book about the solar system with images of the different planets and moons.

If you’ve had a bad day at work, you will….

Go for a long walk on the beach, preferably around sunset.