Cassandra Marcussen

I am a Ph.D. student in theoretical computer science at Harvard University, advised by Madhu Sudan. In 2022, I graduated from Columbia University, where I double-majored in Mathematics and Computer Science and was advised by Xi Chen. My research is supported by an NDSEG Fellowship.

I am interested in theoretical computer science and probability theory. I like to think about problems related to sublinear algorithms, random graphs, error correction, and stochastic processes.

My email is cmarcussen-at-g-dot-harvard-dot-edu.


Research

Characterizing the Distinguishability of Product Distributions through Multicalibration [pdf].
Cassandra Marcussen, Aaron (Louie) Putterman, Salil Vadhan.

Finding the root in random nearest neighbor trees [pdf].
Anna Brandenberger, Cassandra Marcussen, Elchanan Mossel, Madhu Sudan.

Errors are Robustly Tamed in Cumulative Knowledge Processes [pdf].
Anna Brandenberger, Cassandra Marcussen, Elchanan Mossel, Madhu Sudan.
Conference on Learning Theory (COLT) 2024.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) 2025.

Uniformity Testing over Hypergrids with Subcube Conditioning [pdf].
Xi Chen, Cassandra Marcussen.
Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA) 2024.

Uniform scrambles on graphs [pdf].
Lisa Cenek, Lizzie Ferguson, Eyobel Gebre, Cassandra Marcussen, Jason Meintjes, Ralph Morrison, Liz Ostermeyer, Shefali Ramakrishna.
Australasian Journal of Combinatorics, 2023.

Scramble number and tree-cut decompositions [pdf].
Lisa Cenek, Lizzie Ferguson, Eyobel Gebre, Cassandra Marcussen, Jason Meintjes, Ralph Morrison, Liz Ostermeyer, Shefali Ramakrishna, Ben Weber.

Bounds on higher graph gonality [pdf].
Lisa Cenek, Lizzie Ferguson, Eyobel Gebre, Cassandra Marcussen, Jason Meintjes, Ralph Morrison, Liz Ostermeyer, Shefali Ramakrishna.
Presented at the Young Mathematicians Conference, 2021.

Data Preparation of the nuMoM2b Dataset [pdf].
A. Goretsky, A. Dmitrienko, I. Tang, N. Lari, O. Kunhardt, R. Rashid Khan, C. Marcussen, A. Catto, D. Mallia, A. Leshchenko, A. Lin, A. Raja, A. Salleb-Aouissi, Itsik Pe'er, R. Wapner, C. Gyamfi-Bannerman. (Non-alphabetical author ordering)
Technical report.

Authors are ordered alphabetically unless otherwise indicated.


Teaching

At Harvard:

At Columbia, I was a Teaching Assistant for the following courses:

Other:


Fellowships and Selected Awards


Seminars and Organizations


Research and Work Experience


Axioms

I firmly believe Federico Ardila's axioms:

Music

Outside of theoretical computer science and mathematics, one of my passions is music. I am a classical cellist, and I also play the piano and sing. I am currently learning the Bach Cello Suite No. 6 and Rachmaninoff's Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19.