Adrienne Erickcek
Program
Junior Fellow Academy
Appointment
Junior Fellow, Cosmology and Gravity
Institution
University of Toronto
Country
Canada 
Adrienne Erickcek is a CIFAR Junior Fellow working under the co-supervision of Cosmology and Gravity Fellows J. Richard Bond and Neil Turok. From 2009-2011, she held a joint postdoctoral fellowship at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI); as a Junior Fellow she continues to split her time between the two organizations. Adrienne completed her Ph.D. in Physics in 2009 at the California Institute of Technology, with Prof. Marc Kamionkowski as her thesis advisor. She also holds an A.B. with Highest Honors in Physics from Princeton University. After graduating from Princeton in 2003, Adrienne was awarded a Churchill Scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge, where she earned a MASt in Mathematics, with distinction, in 2004.
Adrienne is a theoretical cosmologist who uses the universe as a testing laboratory for new fundamental physics. Cosmological observations indicate that there is no shortage of new physics to discover. The standard cosmological model supported by these observations claims that the universe began with a period of rapid expansion called inflation and is now filled with dark matter and dark energy. We do not know what caused inflation, and we do not know the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Adrienne investigates how we can use observations to learn about these three unknown actors on the cosmic stage. She has studied how different inflation scenarios leave signatures in the cosmic microwave background and small-scale density fluctuations, how gravitational lensing can be used to detect local dark matter clumps, and how gravitational measurements within the Solar System constrain new gravity theories that are designed to eliminate the need for dark energy. As a CIFAR Junior Fellow, Adrienne will continue to search for new ways to test theoretical models for inflation, dark matter, and dark energy.
Adrienne is a theoretical cosmologist who uses the universe as a testing laboratory for new fundamental physics. Cosmological observations indicate that there is no shortage of new physics to discover. The standard cosmological model supported by these observations claims that the universe began with a period of rapid expansion called inflation and is now filled with dark matter and dark energy. We do not know what caused inflation, and we do not know the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Adrienne investigates how we can use observations to learn about these three unknown actors on the cosmic stage. She has studied how different inflation scenarios leave signatures in the cosmic microwave background and small-scale density fluctuations, how gravitational lensing can be used to detect local dark matter clumps, and how gravitational measurements within the Solar System constrain new gravity theories that are designed to eliminate the need for dark energy. As a CIFAR Junior Fellow, Adrienne will continue to search for new ways to test theoretical models for inflation, dark matter, and dark energy.