Fascinated by the stars under the night skies of Lebanon, I always had a passion for astronomy and the urge to understand how the Universe works. My dream became true when I joined the joint Master program at USJ and NDU to pursue a research career in astrophysics. In 2014, I have graduated from USJ with a Master’s degree in astrophysics to start a journey of cosmic explorations. From there, I joined a doctoral program at the University of Cape Town, where I graduated with a PhD in astrophysics in 2018. Since then I joined Michigan State University where I am currently based, working with a large collaboration of scientists from across the globe to study 'exploding stars' and understand how they work. During my research, I had the chance to lead several discoveries, which made it to the international news (e.g., NASA Missions Help Reveal the Power of Shock Waves in a Nova Explosion)

'If you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life' -- this seriously could not be more true. What makes me even more passionate about studying the Universe and particularly exploding stars is that in some way I am actually studying 'our ancestors'. Why? Because every atom in our body is forged inside these exploding stars, so when they die they spread these atoms in the Universe to form new stars, new planets, and new lives (us). After all, we are all made of stardust!

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