Vasily Kokorev

I am an astrophysicist working on the formation and growth of the first galaxies and black holes in the Universe. I am currently a Cosmic Frontier Prize Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.

My research focuses on the earliest phases of galaxy evolution, particularly the rapid growth of supermassive black holes and the physical nature of the recently discovered “Little Red Dots” in deep JWST imaging. I use deep spectroscopic observations from JWST, especially NIRSpec, to study emission-line physics, radiative transfer, and the structure of dense gas surrounding accreting black holes in the first billion years after the Big Bang.

I work extensively with large spectroscopic datasets and develop custom modeling tools to interpret them, including panchromatic SED fitting and detailed emission-line profile modeling. My goal is to connect observable spectral features to the underlying physical processes that drive early black hole growth and galaxy assembly.