Stephane Coutu has been working in experimental particle astrophysics for over 30 years, investigating Nature’s highest energy phenomena by studying cosmic rays. These are cosmic messengers, atomic nuclei, electrons, gamma rays, neutrinos, and even antimatter particles from extreme environments in the Galaxy and beyond, such as shock waves from supernova blasts or accretion disks onto supermassive black holes at the center of distant radio galaxies. Coutu worked on the DoE MACRO experiment looking for magnetic monopoles under a mountain in central Italy, on the NASA HEAT balloon experiments measuring positrons and antiprotons at the top of the atmosphere in New Mexico and Northern Canada, on the NASA CREAM series of balloon missions in Antarctica to detect and map out high-energy nuclei, and on the NSF Pierre Auger Observatory project deployed over an area the size of Rhode Island in western Argentina, detecting the most energetic particles in the Universe today. In mid-August 2017 he and his team launched the ISS-CREAM instrument, on the SpaceX 12 rocket and it was installed on the International Space Station to make new measurements of cosmic-ray nuclei from hydrogen to iron. He is involved with a new NASA balloon project, HELIX, planning to measure cosmic-ray isotopes over Antarctica, and is planning a space mission to study super-heavy cosmic rays. Coutu has been on the Penn State faculty since 1997 and is now a professor of physics and of astronomy and astrophysics there. He was a recipient of the 2001 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Publications
Stephane Coutu's research group
| Name | Role | Affiliation | Phone | Office Address | Affiliated Center(s) | Research Topics(s) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Heather Allen | Graduate Student | Physics | heather.allen@psu.edu | --- | 204 Osmond Laboratory | CMA, IGC | Multimessenger Astrophysics, Cosmic Rays |
 | Yu Chen | Graduate Student | Physics | yuc357@psu.edu | -- | 205 Osmond Laboratory | CMA | Cosmic Rays |
 | Shujin Cheng | Graduate Student | svc6640@psu.edu | 8142803428 | 113 Osmond Laboratory | IGC |
Stephane Coutu's research group news
First flight of HELIX
2024-07-10
The High Energy Light Isotope eXperiment is designed to measure various isotopes of cosmic ray nuclei, which are sensitive to the history of propagation of these energetic particles through our Milky Way galaxy, and which are linked to energetic interactions in the interstellar medium (yielding antimatter as well as rare nuclei). The instrument had its first stratospheric balloon flight on May 28, 2024 from the Esrange rocket/balloon base in northern Sweden, landing on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian high Arctic after more than 6 days. The Penn State group includes IGC faculty Stephane Coutu and Isaac Mognet, and past and present students Heather Allen, Carl Chen, Alex Pazoki and Monong Yu.
New TIGER approved for deployment to the International Space Station
2022-09-26
A team of physicists that includes researchers at Penn State is developing a new experiment envisioned for the International Space Station (ISS) as part of NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers Program. The new experiment, the Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder for the International Space Station (TIGERISS), will be designed to measure the abundances of ultra-heavy galactic cosmic rays—high-energy particles that have been rapidly accelerated from a star’s violent collapse, called a supernova, or other cosmic events such as the merger of two neutron stars. By measuring the quantity of each atomic element in cosmic rays, scientists gain information about where they could have originated.
TIGERISS is an evolution of the TIGER and SuperTIGER balloon-borne instruments, developed by scientists at Washington University, NASA Goddard, Caltech and others over the past three decades, with the Penn State contingent invited to participate in the next phase of the science program. “We are excited to join old friends from the cosmic-ray ballooning community in investigating the rare but fascinating ultra-heavy cosmic rays,” said Stephane Coutu, professor of physics and of astronomy and astrophysics and the Penn State lead investigator for the TIGERISS program. “The origin of the heavy elements of the periodic table, such as the gold you might wear around your neck or finger, ultimately links back to intriguing, violent and exotic astrophysical phenomena.”
Other Penn State team members include physics research professors Samuel Isaac Mognet and Tyler Anderson. Together the Penn State team has decades of experience successfully developing detector elements for space-rated instruments flown on high-altitude balloons or to the ISS where TIGERISS will be deployed in a few years.
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