ZTF Faces

Rachel Bruch

PhD student at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

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

I am Rachel Bruch. I was born and grew up in the French Caribbean, on an island called Martinique. I moved to Gif-Sur-Yvette in France to study Physics and Mathematics when I was 17. While I wanted to study astrophysics at the beginning, I fell in love with experimental quantum optics in bachelor. When I did my master’s thesis in Weizmann on logical gates for quantum computing, I met Pr. Avishay Gal Yam and was convinced to give a try to astronomy for a PhD. A very rich and amazing adventure, so far!

What are you playing with in the ZTF playground?

I am one of the lead scanner of the Infant Supernovae program. We hunt supernovae very close to their explosion and lead observational campaigns to study their early behaviour.

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

I hope to continue working in astronomy and will pursue a postdoc in the field next year!

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

If I were not an astronomer, I would surely be in the medical field (either emergency medicine or pathology).

A book that shook your worldview?

No books really shook my worldview yet, but moving countries twice, alone, and experiencing different cultures did! If anything, I would say that the Robot and Foundation Cycle by Asimov, or the Memory of Earth by Orson Scott Card, or the Dune saga … ( and many more) are my favourite universes.

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

If I had a bad day at work… you might find me on my way to the desert, or climbing.