Cora Dvorkin

This information is accurate as of the fellowship year indicated for each fellow.

Cora Dvorkin is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Dvorkin’s research focuses on “data-driven” cosmology: predictions from fundamental physics that can be tested with cosmological data. Her research interests span questions related to inflation, dark matter, dark energy, and neutrinos. To assess these questions, she uses data from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and the large-scale structure of the universe. Dvorkin is currently the coleader of the Inflation analysis group for the proposed CMB-S4: Next Generation CMB Experiment. 

During her year at Radcliffe, Dvorkin is working on various projects to address the following major puzzles that we currently have in fundamental physics: What is the physics that seeded the first structures in the universe? What is the nature of dark matter, and how is it related to particle physics? Are there other light particles in the early universe beyond the standard model? What are the physical properties of neutrino species? 

Dvorkin has been named the 2018 Harvard Scientist of the Year by the Harvard Foundation for her “significant contributions to physics and cosmology and for engagement with students on Harvard’s campus.” She has also been awarded a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship for 2018–2019 and a Shutzer Assistant Professorship at the Radcliffe Institute for the period 2015–2019. Dvorkin earned her PhD in the Department of Physics at the University of Chicago.

Harvard Physicist Works to Understand Dark Matter (Harvard Gazette, 11/5/20)