We are proud to congratulate Roi Rahin, PhD student under the supervision of Ehud Behar, for winning the prestigious Zuckerman Foundation scholarship for postdocs 2022-23 at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This scholarship comes after receiving the prestigious NASA Postdoctoral Program fellowship (NPP).
The purpose of the The Zuckerman Postdoctoral Scholars Program is to train Technion graduates for an academic track, with the expectation that they will later return to Israel’s academia or industry.

Roi’s research focuses on observational X-ray spectroscopy and experimental gamma-ray astrophysics. In X-ray, Roi uses the emission lines of active galactic nuclei and X-ray binaries to study the astrophysical environment of these sources. In his gamma-ray work, he is part of a team developing the Gamma-ray burst Localizing Instrument (GALI). GALI is a novel concept for gamma-ray burst detection and localization, capable of achieving very high angular resolution relative to its small size. The GALI experiment will soon launch to the international space station.

At NASA, Roi will join the calorimeter group at the Goddard Space Flight Center. The calorimeter group develops and builds high-resolution X-ray spectrometers called micro-calorimeters. Micro-calorimeters will allow the detection of new emission lines using X-ray spectroscopy, which can shed light on many astrophysical mysteries. As part of his research, Roi will use terrestrial versions of these micro-calorimeters to study the new emission lines we expect to find in space environments.

Congratulations Roi and good luck!

Picutre: Roi Rahin with Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe and Inbal Kreiss head of the Ramon Foundation Rakia science mission, next to the GALI experiment.