Marilena LoVerde
Enrico Fermi Institute
University of Chicago
5620 South Ellis Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
(773) 702-4314 | marilena@uchicago.edu
RESEARCH
INTERESTS
Theoretical astrophysics and cosmology: large-scale structure, gravitational lensing, sources
and signatures of non-Gaussianity, neutrino astrophysics, astrophysical probes of fundamental physics
EDUCATION
Columbia University
Ph.D., Physics, May 2009, Thesis Advisor: Lam Hui
New York, NY
University of California, Berkeley
B.A., Mathematics and Physics, Honors Program in Physics, May 2003
Berkeley, CA
Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago
Postdoctoral Scholar
Chicago, IL
2012–present
Institute for Advanced Study
Member in the Astrophysics Group at the School of Natural Sciences
Princeton, NJ
2009–2012
Columbia University
Research Assistant at Institute for Strings, Cosmology and Astroparticle
Physics (ISCAP) and Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory (CAL)
New York, NY
2005–2009
University of California, Berkeley
Research Assistant in Ultracold Atomic Physics Group
Berkeley, CA
2002–2003
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Summer Intern in the Protein Crystallography Group
Menlo Park, CA
2000
POSITIONS
HELD
AWARDS
Jerry Selvaggi Scholar, Columbia University Physics Department, Fall 2007
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Honorable Mention, Fall 2005
Berkeley Undergraduate Research Scholar, U.C. Berkeley, Fall 2002–Spring 2003
Isidore Pomerantz Scholar, U.C. Berkeley Physics Department, Fall 2001–Spring 2002
TEACHING
Columbia University
Teaching Assistant for Columbia Summer Program for High School Students course
“Mathematical Boot Camp for Budding String Theorists” (Summer 2009)
Teaching Assistant for undergraduate courses “Intro. to Electricity, Magnetism and Optics”
(Spring 2009),“Intro. to Mechanics and Thermodynamics” (Fall 2008)
Teaching Assistant for graduate courses “Astrophysics and Relativity” (Fall 2007), “Physical
Cosmology” (Fall 2008), “Physical Phenomena” (Fall 2004)
Course Instructor – Designed and taught course “Cosmology, Relativity and Fundamental
Particles” for high school students in the Columbia Science Honors Program
(Spring 2006 – Fall 2006)
Lab Instructor – Taught and graded weekly lab section covering basic experiments in
mechanics and electromagnetism (Fall 2003–Summer 2005)
PROFESSIONAL Referee for Advances in Astronomy, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics,
ACTIVITIES
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Physical Review Letters,
Physical Review D
Reviewer for National Science Foundation astrophysics proposals
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LEADERSHIP
AND
OUTREACH
Adler Planetarium, Chicago
Volunteer in the Space Visualization Laboratory (Fall 2012-present)
Princeton University
Prison Teaching Initiative – Co-instructor for mathematics courses
at Garden State Youth Correctional Facility (Spring 2010-2012)
Columbia University
Astronomy Department Public Observing – Public lecture on
General Relativity and gravitational lensing (Spring 2008)
Annual lecture and demonstrations on the physics of light and
sound to visiting classes of 5th grade students (Spring 2004-2009)
Co-chair of Women in Science at Columbia (Fall 2006–Summer 2007)
Started Lab Coat Lunches program of monthly scientist visits to a
Bronx middle school (Fall 2006–Summer 2007)
New York State Science & Engineering Fair, Judge (2007)
Seven Sisters Seminar Series –Visited the Seven Sisters Colleges
to speak about research, graduate school, and encourage
women to consider post-graduate study (Fall 2005)
Girls’ Science Day at Columbia University – Led an experiment
for twelve middle school girls, the physics demo show for all
eighty girls attending, and assisted in organizing the event (Fall 2004–2007)
University of California, Berkeley
Lawrence Berkeley Communicating Science Program –
Participated in workshops on science education, conducted weekly
physics lessons for 5th grade students at Hillcrest Elementary (Spring 2001)
TALKS
“A Nearly Gaussian Hubble Patch in a Non-Gaussian Universe”
Cosmology & Gravitation Seminar, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, October 2013
“Super Cosmic Variance”
Cosmology After Planck Workshop, Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics, September 2013
“Testing Inflation with Statistics and Large-scale Structure”
Astronomy Colloquium, Stanford, April 2013
“A Nearly Gaussian Hubble Patch in a Non-Gaussian Universe”
Astrophysics Seminar, Carnegie-Mellon, March 2013
“The Mass Function”
Critical Tests of Inflation Using Non-Gaussianity Workshop
Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, November 2012
“Probing Inflation with Large-scale Structure”
Astrophysics Colloquium, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, October 2012
“Overview of Non-Gaussian Models”
Non-Gaussianity Workshop, KICP, April 2012
“Primordial Non-Gaussianity in Large-scale Structure”
ISCAP Seminar, Columbia University, April 2012
“Testing Inflation with Dark Matter Halos”
New Ideas at the Interface of Cosmology and String Theory Workshop,
University of Pennsylvania, March 2012
“Primordial Non-Gaussianity in Large-scale Structure”
Seminar, Case Western Reserve University, February 2012
“Primordial Non-Gaussianity in Large-scale Structure”
Inflationary Theory and Its Confrontation with Data in the Planck Era,
Aspen Center for Physics, February 2012
“Local Primordial Non-Gaussianity in Large-scale Structure: fN L , gN L and τN L ”
TAPIR Seminar, Caltech, November 2011
“Halo Mass Function and Clustering with fN L , gN L and τN L ”
CITA Seminar, University of Toronto, September 2011
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“Testing Inflation with Dark Matter Halos”
DPF Meeting of the American Physical Society, Providence, August 2011
“Halo Mass Function with fN L , gN L and τN L ”
Cosmological Non-Gaussianity Workshop, University of Michigan, May 2011
“Out of This World: A History of Structure in the Universe”
Friends Forum, Institute for Advanced Study, May 2011
“Primordial non-Gaussianity in Large-scale Structure”
KICP Seminar, University of Chicago, April 2011
“Primordial Non-Gaussianity in Large-scale Structure”
Princeton University Wunch Talk, March 2011
“Primordial Non-Gaussianity in the Halo Mass-function”
contributed talk at Essential Cosmology for the Next Generation, January 2011
“External Correlations of the Lyman-alpha Forest”
Astrophysics-Cosmology Seminar, University of Pennsylvania, September 2010
“Lensing in the Lyman-alpha Forest”
contributed talk at Essential Cosmology for the Next Generation, January 2010
“Lensing in the Lyman-alpha Forest”
Princeton University Post-doc Seminar, October 2009
“Gravitational Lensing and the Lyman-alpha Forest”
student talk at Physics of the Large and Small, TASI, July 2009
“Non-dog is my Co-pilot: Hunting for Primordial Non-Gaussianity in Large-scale Structure”
Institute for Theory and Computation Seminar, Harvard-Smithsonian CfA, October 2008
“Observations Through a Lumpy Universe”
Cosmology Seminar, University of California Berkeley, October 2008
“Observations Through a Lumpy Universe”
Seminar, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, October 2008
“Observations Through a Lumpy Universe”
Informal Astrophysics Seminar, Institute for Advanced Study, September 2008
“Observations Through a Lumpy Universe”
Astrophysics-Cosmology Seminar, University of Pennsylvania, April 2008
“Scale-dependent Non-Gaussianity in Large-scale Structure”
contributed talk at Origins and Observations of Primordial Non-Gaussianity
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, March 2008
“Non-dog is my Co-pilot: Primordial Non-Gaussianity in Large-scale Structure”
Institute for Strings, Cosmology and Astro-particle Physics Seminar
Columbia University, Febuary 2008
“Scale-dependent Non-Gaussianity in the Low-redshift Sky”
contributed talk at The Astrophysics of Near-Term Cosmological Observations
Perimeter Insitute/Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, November 2007
“Observations Through a Lumpy Universe”
Institute for Theory and Computation Seminar, Harvard-Smithsonian CfA, July 2007
“DBI in the Low-redshift Sky”
contributed talk at Life Beyond the Gaussian
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago, June 2007
“Cosmic Magnification and the ISW Effect”
contributed talk at External Correlations of the CMB and Cosmology
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, May 2006
POSTERS
“How to capture a neutrino (if you are a dark matter halo)”
poster session at Galaxies within the Cosmic Web, KICP, June 2013
“DBI in the Low-redshift Sky” poster session at Dark Matter:
From the Cosmos to the Laboratory, SLAC Summer Institute 2007, August 2007
“Testing Dark Energy with ALPACA,” poster session at the American
Astronomical Society 207th Meeting, Session 206.4, January 2006
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PAPERS
M. LoVerde and M. Zaldarriaga, “Spherical collapse in νΛCDM ,” in prep.
M. LoVerde and M. Zaldarriaga, “Neutrino clustering around spherical dark matter halos,”
[arXiv:1310.6459]
M. LoVerde, “Super cosmic variance from mode coupling: a worked example,” submitted to
PRD, [arXiv:1310.5739]
M. LoVerde, E. Nelson, S. Shandera, “Non-Gaussian Mode Coupling and the Statistical Cosmological Principle,” JCAP 06, 024 (2013), [arXiv:1303.3549]
M. LoVerde, S. Ferraro, K. M. Smith, “Testing Inflation with Dark Matter Halos,” Proceedings
of the DPF-2011 Conference, Providence, RI, August 8-13, 2011 [arXiv:1110.1594]
K. M. Smith, M. LoVerde and M. Zaldarriaga, “A universal bound on N -point correlations from
inflation,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 191301 (2011), [arXiv:1108.1805]
K. M. Smith, S. Ferraro and M. LoVerde, “Halo Clustering and gN L -type Primordial NonGaussianity,” JCAP 03, 032 (2012), [arXiv:1106.0503]
M. LoVerde and K. M. Smith, “The Non-Gaussian Halo Mass Function with fN L , gN L and
τN L ,” JCAP 08, 003 (2011) [arXiv:1102.1439]
K. M. Smith and M. LoVerde, “Local Stochastic Non-Gaussianity and N-body Simulations,”
JCAP 11, 009 (2011) , [arXiv:1010.0055]
K. M. Smith, D. Hanson, M. LoVerde, C. Hirata and O. Zahn, “Delensing CMB Polarization
with External Datasets,” JCAP 014, 1206 (2012), [arXiv:1010.0048].
M. LoVerde, S. Marnerides, L. Hui, B. Ménard, A. Lidz, “Gravitational Lensing as Signal and Noise in Lyman-alpha Forest Measurements,” Phys. Rev. D 82, 103507 (2010)
[arXiv:1004.1165]
K. M. Smith, A. Cooray, S. Das, O. Doré, D. Hanson, C. Hirata, M. Kaplinghat, B. Keating,
M. LoVerde, N. Miller, G. Rocha, M. Shimon and O. Zahn, “CMBPol Mission Concept Study:
Gravitational Lensing,” AIP Conference Proceedings 1141, 121 (2009) [arXiv:0811.3916]
M. LoVerde and N. Afshordi, “Extended Limber Approximation,” Phys. Rev. D 78, 123506
(2008) [arXiv:0809.5112]
M. LoVerde, A. Miller, S. Shandera and L. Verde, “Effects of Scale-dependent Non-Gaussianity
on Cosmological Structures,” JCAP 04, 014 (2008) [arXiv:07114126]
L. Hui, E. Gaztañaga and M. LoVerde, “Anisotropic Magnification Distortion of the 3D Galaxy
Correlation: II. Fourier and Redshift Space,” Phys. Rev. D 77, 063526 (2008) [arXiv:0710.4191]
M. LoVerde, L. Hui and E. Gaztañaga, “Lensing Corrections to Features in the Angular Correlation Function and Power Spectrum,” Phys. Rev. D 77, 023512 (2008) [arXiv:0708.0031]
L. Hui, E. Gaztañaga and M. LoVerde, “Anisotropic Magnification Distortion of the 3D Galaxy
Correlation: I. Real Space,” Phys. Rev. D 76, 103502 (2007) [arXiv:0706.1071]
M. LoVerde, L. Hui and E. Gaztañaga, “Magnification-Temperature Correlation: The Dark Side
of ISW Measurements,” Phys. Rev. D 75, 043519 (2007) [astro-ph/0611539]
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P.-S. Corasaniti, M. LoVerde, A. Crotts and C. Blake, “Testing Dark Energy with the Advanced
Liquid-Mirror Probe of Asteroids, Cosmology and Astrophysics” Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc.
369, 798 (2006) [astro-ph/0511632]
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