Drexel Physics alum Stephen Sclafani, PhD ’23, is the recipient of the American Physical Society’s Ceclia Payne-Gaposchkin Doctoral Dissertation Award in Astrophysics. This award recognizes doctoral thesis research in astrophysics and encourages effective written and oral presentation of research results. 

Sclafani was recognized for performing the first observation of diffuse high-energy neutrinos from our galaxy using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory's cascade data stream in a novel approach to mitigate high backgrounds, and for the effective use of machine learning in realizing this observation.  

At Drexel, Sclafani worked under the mentorship of Professor of Physics Naoko Kurahashi Neilson, PhD, whose research efforts are mainly involved in the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. In 2018, Kurahashi Neilson and the IceCube team proved the origin of neutrinos—high-energy particles that can help us understand how galaxies are formed and evolve. Neilson outlined her discovery in two papers published in the premier scientific journal Science, one of which Sclafani co-authored.  

In 2019, Sclafani traveled to the South Pole as a member of the Drexel IceCube Research group, standing out among dozens of graduate students to earn a spot supporting and maintaining the research station, which detects the nearly imperceptible neutrino particles by using light sensors buried deep within a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice.   

In 2023, Kurahashi Neilson and Sclafani used neutrinos to produce a new image of the Milky Way Galaxy, making it more accessible to view than ever before. The image is the first to use particles of matter to visualize the galaxy, instead of electromagnetic energy. 

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory detects the interactions of the neutrinos beneath the ice, but the challenge is determining where the neutrinos come from. Sclafani developed a machine learning algorithm that compared the relative position, size and energy of more than 60,000 neutrino-generated cascades of light recorded by IceCube over 10 years. After testing and verifying the algorithm, the research team input real IceCube-provided data from neutrinos and produced an image showing bright spots corresponding to locations in the Milky Way. 

"We're the first ones to see our galaxy in anything other than light," said Kurahashi Neilson, when she and Sclafani first examined the image. This research achievement was covered internationally by media outlets including The New York Times, BBC and Scientific American.  

Sclafani is now a post-doctoral researcher at University of Maryland, where he continues to use machine learning, AI, statistics and high-throughput computation to solve problems in astro-particle physics and beyond. 

Drexel’s Department of Physics offers students earning their doctorate degree the opportunity to study with leading researchers in astrophysics, biophysics, solid-state physics, particle physics and physics education research as well as to participate in international collaborations such as the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. Learn more.