Rogier Braakman

Hi everyone, I'm Rogier Braakman. I was born in Holland and grew up on the island of Curacao. I later returned to Holland where I studied chemistry at the University of Amsterdam. Currently I am working towards a PhD in chemistry at Caltech. My research focuses on the organic chemistry in star-forming regions of the interstellar medium. I’m interested in the chemical evolution of the universe, in particular in the transition from ‘prebiotic’ interstellar chemistry to biological chemistry in living organisms on Earth. In a more general sense, I am fascinated by complex behavior and how it emerges and evolves in Nature, and feel that the emergence of life is a natural expression of universal principles governing complex systems. I hope to learn more about some of these principles and the tools to study them this summer and I hope that by interacting with people from many different fields I gain a better perspective on how to apply these ideas to my own research.

Outside of research I enjoy many different things, although what I spend most time doing varies a lot. Recently I have been playing a lot of basketball and learning how to do pottery. I also really like seeing different parts of the world, so getting the opportunity to go to Beijing with its rich history is very exciting!