Abstract: In the past decade, neutrino astronomy went from dream to reality with the IceCube collaboration producing observations of the very first neutrino sources in the sky. Last year, the diffuse emission of the Galactic Plane was observed in high-energy neutrinos, making it the first non-electromagnetic view of our own galaxy. Fundamentally, the IceCube detector is a particle physics detector, and astronomical observations are only possible by teasing out an astronomical signal hidden in dominating background rates that are many orders of magnitude higher. The successes of neutrino astronomy in the past decade opened a new field, and the current state of neutrino astronomy is evolving. With more future neutrino telescopes planned, the field is poised to make more discoveries.

Bio: Naoko Kurahashi Neilson is a Professor in the Department of Physics at Drexel University. Professor Kurahashi Neilson's research centers on high-energy neutrinos, high-energy particle astrophysics and particle physics. Kurahashi Neilson's efforts are mainly involved in the IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory. She also contributes to the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Observatory, an ocean neutrino telescope. Kurahashi Neilson earned her PhD by listening acoustically to extremely high-energy neutrinos in the Bahamian ocean. Her research group at Drexel works to resolve high-energy neutrino sources in the sky.