Caroline Dorn

Prof. Caroline Dorn is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at ETH Zürich, specializing in exoplanetary science. Her research focuses on planetary interiors, atmospheric composition, and the interplay between geophysical processes and observational signatures. Dorn holds a Diploma in Geophysics from ETH Zürich and a PhD in Geosciences from the University of Lausanne (awarded with the Faculty Prize). She conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Bern before leading an SNSF Ambizione Fellowship project at the University of Zurich on exoplanet interior characterization. Her work integrates numerical modeling, data analysis from missions like JWST and PLATO, and observational campaigns to unravel the composition and evolution of super-Earths and sub-Neptunes.

• Holds Ambizione Fellowship (2017-2023)
• Recipient of EPFL Thesis Distinction and Prix Schläfli in Chemistry 2023
• Contributed to over 150 peer-reviewed articles on planetary formation and exoplanet characterization

Research interests span magma ocean dynamics, volatile partitioning in planetary interiors, and the link between host star chemistry and planetary composition. She is a key member of the PLATO mission team and co-leads the Hot-Neptune Initiative (HONEI). Current projects include modeling interior-atmosphere interactions and developing tools for interpreting JWST data.

Her studies on sub-Neptune atmospheres revealed that water abundance is dominated by endogenic processes rather than inheritance from protoplanetary disks. Notable contributions include demonstrating that most super-Earths contain <3% water by mass and identifying critical thresholds in planetary radius distributions linked to formation pathways.