Faculty

Kirit S. Karkare, Assistant Professor of Physics

kkarkare@bu.edu               Office: PRB 275

Feel free to email if you’d like to meet. Please check my schedule at this link for recurring appointments and propose a time when I’m not busy!

About me: Before joining BU, I was a staff scientist at SLAC, an NSF/Schramm/Grainger/KICP Fellow at UChicago and Fermilab, a Ph.D. student at Harvard, and an undergraduate at Caltech.

Postdoctoral Scholar

Sofia Savorgnano

Sofia is a postdoctoral researcher studying millimeter-wave polarization to probe the early Universe and test inflation. Her work follows an experimental chain, from KID detector fabrication to calibration and analysis of CMB and astrophysical data. She is part of the BICEP/Keck and SuperSpec collaborations and works on pre-deployment testing of instrumentation. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Milano-Bicocca and completed her PhD at LPSC in Grenoble, focusing on polarization measurements, calibration techniques, and the role of magnetic fields in star formation.Outside research, she is a former professional soccer referee who now trains in CrossFit. She enjoys theatre, ballet, Latin dance, karaoke, and, unusually for an Italian, prefers tea over coffee.

Graduate Students

Marcela Izquierdo Poza

Marcela is a physics PhD student working on the BICEP/Keck collaboration. She is interested in experimental cosmology, particularly measurements of CMB polarization to probe the early universe and inflation. Marcela graduated from Randolph College with a B.S. in Mathematics and a B.S. with honors in Physics. Beyond research, Marcela enjoys running and watching Atletico de Madrid’s games.

Alex Lapuente

Alex is a PhD student interested in experimental and observational cosmology, particularly in how understanding large-scale structure can shed light on the universe’s composition and evolution. Alex is a member of the SPT-SLIM and SuperSpec collaborations, where he works on calibration, data reduction, and data analysis for line intensity mapping surveys. Alex graduated from UChicago in 2024 with a B.S. in Mathematics and a B.A. with Honors in Physics. Outside of research, Alex enjoys playing several musical instruments, watching horror movies, and spoiling his cat.

Annie Tan

Annie is a Physics PhD student interested in developing better detectors and spectrometers for next generation line intensity mapping projects. Annie is a member of the SuperSpec and SWISS collaborations. She graduated from Cornell University in 2024 with a B.S. in Engineering Physics and a minor in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Outside work, Annie enjoys knitting, baking (bread), visiting new cities, and exploring the outdoors.

Undergraduate Students

Simon Goldort

Leo Rava

Katherine Dart

Collaborators

We work closely with many other scientists, including but not limited to:

  • BICEP/Keck Array
    • Zeeshan Ahmed (SLAC), Colin Bischoff (Cincinnati), John Kovac (Harvard), Clara Verges (LBL)
  • SPT-SLIM
    • Adam Anderson (FNAL), Pete Barry (Cardiff), Brad Benson (FNAL), John Carlstrom (UChicago), Clarence Chang (ANL), Garrett Keating (CfA), Dan Marrone (Arizona)
  • SuperSpec: Matt Bradford
  • LIM studies: Simeon Bird (UC Riverside), Abby Crites (Cornell), Azadeh Moradinezhad Dizgah (LAPTh)

Alumni

Prior to moving to BU, our group was based at SLAC/KIPAC from 2022-2024.

Postdocs

  • Carlos Sierra, Stanford University (KIPAC Fellow)
  • Cheng Zhang, Stanford University (Porat Fellow)

Graduate Students

  • Abhishek Mhatre, Boston University (2024-25)
  • Elyssa Brooks, University of Chicago (Ph.D. 2024)
  • Ryan McGeehan, University of Chicago (Ph.D. 2023)
  • Donald (Michael) Zito, University of Cincinnati (SLAC SCGSR student 2024)

Undergraduates

  • Haley Gonnella, SULI student

Erik Shirokoff

As a postdoc, Kirit worked in Erik Shirokoff’s UChicago laboratory. Erik passed away unexpectedly in 2023. His pioneering work enabled much of the research that we’re working on today. He was an exceptional scientist and educator, and is sorely missed.