Amy Connolly's recent five-year, $650,000 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will help support her search for high-energy neutrinos, a type of elementary particle, traveling at the speed of light, which can travel cosmological distances unabated, existing all across the universe.

 

These are sometimes called "ghost particles" because they are very hard to find due to their remote chance of ever interacting with regular matter. Only sophisticated experiments can catch and measure their properties.

 

The NSF awards recognize and encourage the careers of exceptional young researchers whose work shows promise of significant ongoing contributions to their fields.

 

The assistant professor of physics joined the department in 2010, "because of the strength of the particle astrophysics group and the Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics."