Ghosts in the ice – hunting for the universe’s most elusive particles in Antarctica

Date/Time
Date(s) - 09/04/2019
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Prof Darren Grant – University of Alberta

In some of the planet’s most extreme environments scientists are constructing enormous detectors to study the very rare interactions produced by neutrinos. At South Pole Station Antarctica more than a cubic kilometre of the deep glacial ice has been instrumented to construct the world’s largest neutrino detector: the IceCube Neutrino Observatory.  Designed to detect the highest energy neutrinos expected to be produced in the most violent astrophysical processes, IceCube recently announced the discovery of the first neutrinos originating from a distant supermassive black hole.  Presented will be a view into this new window to the universe and the future outlook for this rapidly evolving field.

Dr. Darren Grant studies the properties of some of nature’s most elusive fundamental particles through the development of ultra-sensitive detectors deployed in extreme locations around the globe. He obtained his Ph.D. from Carleton University investigating the properties of solar neutrinos with Canada’s Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. Dr. Grant is currently the spokesperson for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, is a recent recipient of NSERC-Canada’s E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, and elected member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada.