Neutrino Nobel has BU connections

October 06, 2015

Congratulations to Prof. Takaaki Kajita from the University of Tokyo and Art McDonald from Queens University for the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of neutrino oscillations. Several professors, postdocs, and graduate students from the Boston University Neutrino Group shared in the work on the Super-Kamiokande experiment that earned Kajita the prize. Pictured below is the neutrino research group circa 1997, one year into the experiment. From left: Prof. Larry Sulak, Dr. Kate Scholberg, Dr. Ed Kearns, Dr. Chris Walter,  graduate student Matt Earl, Dr. Alec Habig,  graduate student (on the MACRO experiment) Chris Orth, graduate student Mark Messier, and Prof. Jim Stone. Mark Messier's PhD thesis contributed to the work that led to this years Nobel Prize. Ed Kearns co-lead the Super-Kamiokande atmospheric neutrino research group with Kajita, and coauthored a Scientific American article with Prof. Kajita and Super-K spokesperson Y. Totsuka. Prof. Stone is co-spokeperson of the U.S. Super-K collaboration and Prof. Sulak was one of the pioneers of the first generation experiment of this type, known as IMB.

BU Neutrino Research Group 

Here is a photo of some of the BU Neutrino Group years later, at a dinner in Boston with Prof. Kajita. Clockwise from left: Dan Gastler, Ed Kearns, Takaaki Kajita, Wei Wang, Mike Litos, Jen Raaf, and Fanny Dufour.

BU group with Takaaki Kajita

The research activities of the BU Neutrino Group have been supported by grants from the Department of Energy, Office of Science.