Dr. Gidi Yoffe is a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech, following postdoctoral work at the Weizmann Institute of Science. His research focuses on the habitability of icy ocean worlds, especially Europa, and on how their surfaces record exchanges with subsurface oceans that may support life.

Gidi holds a B.Sc. in natural sciences (with honors) from the Open University of Israel, an M.Sc. in planetary science from the Weizmann Institute of Science, and a Ph.D. in statistics and data science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His earlier work spanned exoplanet dynamics, astronomical spectroscopy, and unsupervised analysis of complex data, including the Hebrew Bible, providing an interdisciplinary foundation for interpreting complex planetary data.

Gidi was awarded a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellowship for his project, From Surface Spectra to Subsurface Chemistry: A Predictive Framework for Ocean Worlds. His project explores how observations of Europa’s surface can be linked to ocean chemistry, surface evolution, and the survival thereupon of organic molecules that may serve as biosignatures. The research integrates planetary astronomy, physical and chemical modeling, and data-driven analysis to identify fresh or altered materials, assess radiation-driven change, and guide future missions to Europa, Enceladus, and other ocean worlds.

His recent publications include:

Yoffe et al., Molecular diversity as a biosignature. Nature Astronomy, 10, 664–673, 2026.

Yoffe et al., Geant4-IcyMoons. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 284, 80, 2026.

Yoffe and Shahaf, Spectral Decomposition Reveals Surface Processes on Europa. The Astrophysical Journal, 1001, 4, 2026.