ABOUT
Dr. Reut Sorek-Abramovich
A scientist and expedition leader who brings rigorous field science to the world's most extreme environments, from polar ice sheets to desert analog-astronaut missions.
Why the edge
Dr. Reut Sorek-Abramovich
Founder and Science Director
The edge is where you really come alive again. It's where you encounter something deeply unknown, something completely new. At the edge, very few things matter: staying alive and continuing to push the boundaries of discovery, whether it's about yourself, your family, the planet, or the universe itself. I've never gone to the edge to escape or to prove that I can endure a certain amount of suffering (and hey, I can). I go to discover something entirely new, something you cannot know, feel, or imagine until you are actually there. It's curiosity, a genuine longing to understand the universe. And at the edge, I get to meet it all again, for the first time.
Dr. Reut Sorek Abramovich is a scientist and explorer working at the intersection of space science and the planet's most extreme frontiers. An International Fellow of The Explorers Club (2023), she holds a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, where her research examined nitrogen fixation by bacterial communities under extreme conditions and its implications for life in the solar system and beyond. View publications on Google Scholar.
Reut is the founder of #Wherelifehides, providing agile scientific access to the world's most remote polar regions for extreme science. In March 2025 she led the science program on the Arctic Edge expedition to the Arctic Circle, and she previously served as science advisor to the Weizmann Institute of Science's Eureka Space mission, designing an astrobiology-focused mission to Europa. Her field career spans Antarctic debris cones, the stromatolites of Shark Bay, and Mars analog missions in Israel's Negev desert, where she co-founded and directed the Desert Mars Analog Ramon Station and served as science officer on Israel's first Mars simulation mission, D-MARS. See Arctic Resilience expedition story.
From 2023 to 2025 she was co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Starstone, an audacious biotech startup for the concrete industry.
A Co-Chair of the Space Sciences department at the International Space University and a core lecturer in Astrobiology since 2016, Reut has spent two decades building the next generation of space scientists and explorers, from founding the Israeli Mars Society to directing the Young Israeli Astronauts Academy at the Davidson Institute for Science Education. Her work has been published in journals including Nature Astronomy and presented at international forums including the International Astronautical Congress, the AIAA/Smithsonian Outer Space Heritage Summit, and the Ilan Ramon International Space Conference. She lives by a simple conviction: that understanding the harshest environments on Earth is how we learn to live beyond it. View publications on Google Scholar.
- Specialties
- AstrobiologyExtreme-environment physiologyExpedition science leadership
Speaking and advisory
Available for keynotes, executive briefings, and advisory work with research organizations, expedition partners, and innovation teams.
Speaking and advisory availability
Available for keynotes, executive briefings, and advisory work with research organizations, expedition partners, and innovation teams.