I’m a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Santa Cruz, pursuing a Ph.D. in Astronomy & Astrophysics under the supervision of Ryan J. Foley.

I lead the Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) cosmology efforts of the Swope Supernova Survey, a low-redshift transient survey using the 1-m Swope telescope in Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. I’m also involved in SN Ia cosmology efforts using Young Supernova Experiment and Foundation Supernova Survey. You can find my publication list here.

I’m 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.

I recently won the People’s Choice award at the UC Santa Cruz 2023 Grad Slam competition, where graduate students across the entire university presented their research in just 3 minutes to the general audience. The video of my presentation is below.

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.

The list of papers from our team regarding this spectacular discovery can be accessed here. You can also check UC Santa Cruz’s press release and special report.

Additionally, I’m part of the 1-Meter 2-Hemispheres Collaboration and the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration.

I majored in Physics and Classical Philology at Universidad de Costa Rica in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

I’m from Alajuela, Costa Rica. I like languages, literature, Ancient History, traveling, teaching Spanish, music, and sports. Additionally, I have a Tolkien-related blog.

Let’s chat about Astrophysics, Tolkien, history, books, fútbol, and more!

Feel free to send me an email to: crojasbr (at) ucsc (dot) edu