Prof Raphael Hirschi completed a MSc in physics at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 1999 and a PhD in Astrophysics at the Observatoire de Genève in 2004. He studies the evolution and fate of stars and how they created the chemical elements. Since joining Keele University as a permanent staff in 2007, major highlights of his research have been the determination of the mass and fate of the most massive stars known to date, explaining unique abundances in the early Universe and the setting-up and leading of large projects (ERC starting grant for SHYNE project 2012-2017) and collaborations (NUGRID, BRIDGCE).
The goal of his work is to link major nuclear physics experiments to large astronomical observing programmes, 3D hydrodynamics simulations to 1D stellar models and theoretical stellar astrophysics to the high-performance computing industry. For this purpose, he currently chairs the ChETEC COST Action (CA16117;
https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA16117/)