Colloquium: John Beacom, The Ohio State University - Is Neutrino Astronomy Real?

Astronomy is about detecting things. But neutrinos are almost undetectable particles. So, is neutrino astronomy real? Yes. And even though the statistics of the detections are low, the results are powerful. I provide an overview of this field, focusing on progress and prospects.

 

JOHN F. BEACOM is an Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor at the Ohio State University. He just finished 15 years of service as Director of the Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics. His research interests focus on the intersections of the fields of astrophysics, particle physics, and nuclear physics, especially neutrinos. Prior to joining the Ohio State University, Beacom was a David N. Schramm Fellow of the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at Fermilab, and a Sherman Fairchild Postdoctoral Scholar at Caltech. He is the recipient of numerous recognitions, including being a Fermilab Distinguished Scholar, a Divisional Associate Editor of Physical Review Letters, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and the winner of two major teaching awards at the Ohio State University. Beacom received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Wisconsin. In 2019, he was Chair of the Nuclear-Physics Committee of Visitors at the National Science Foundation. In 2019–2021, he was Co-Chair of the Particle Astrophysics and Gravitation Panel for the Astro2020 Decadal Survey led by the US National Academy of Sciences. In 2022–2025, he was a member of the Committee on Elementary Particle Physics: Progress and Promise, also for the US National Academy of Sciences.