I am currently a Special Research Assistant (Postdoctoral Scholar) at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences / National Astronomical Observatories – NAOC (中国科学院国家天文台) in Beijing, China, working on transient science in the group of Professors Jifeng Liu and Ning-Chen Sun.

I earned my Ph.D. in Astronomy & Astrophysics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2025.

I firmly believe Astronomy can unite Humanity, and help spread kindness and compassion. I recently delivered the closing talk at TEDxSantaCruz on this very topic.

I was actively involved in outreach activities in California, especially towards Spanish-speaking underrepresented groups, and in my home country, Costa Rica. I recently presented an iPoster titled Uniting Humanity Through the Night Sky: Multilingual and Multicultural Approaches to Astronomy Outreach at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. You can read the iPoster here.

I lead the Type Ia Supernova (SN Ia) cosmology efforts of the Swope Supernova Survey, a low-redshift imaging transient program using the 1-m Swope telescope in Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. Our first SN Ia data release was just submitted to MNRAS.

I was honored to give the graduation speech at the 2024 UC Santa Cruz commencement ceremony . I speak about valuable things I have learned in graduate school, such as self-love, resilience, Buddhism, and Stoicism, with Astronomy and companionship insights.

I was a National Osterbrock Fellow at the National Osterbrock Leadership Program (Program Director: Sandra Faber), which aims to empower young astronomers to become effective leaders by teaching them principles of leadership and management through different educational activities, mentorships, and leadership experiences.

Our Swope Supernova Survey team, as part of the 1-Meter-2-Hemisphere collaboration, on August 17, 2017, discovered the first optical counterpart of a gravitational wave event! This discovery was part of the 2017 Scientific Breakthrough of the year. You can read about our discovery on our website. This discovery, and my role in it, received much media attention in my home country, Costa Rica.

I’m also part of the SN Ia cosmology groups of the Young Supernova Experiment and the Foundation Supernova Survey. 

In my free time, I enjoy learning about languages and literature, Ancient History, calligraphy, traveling, teaching Spanish, History of Science, dancing, and sports. Additionally, I have a Tolkien-related blog. 我在学中文。

Feel free to send me an email at cesar.rojasbravo at gmail.com / cesar.rojasbravo at ucas.ac.cn, or visit my linkedin profile.