Skip to main content

Stephanie Wissel

Stephanie Wissel — Downsbrough Career Development Professorship in Physics — Faculty
Office: 303B Osmond Laboratory
Address: 104 Davey Laboratory University Park, PA 16802 US
wissel@psu.edu
+1 814 863 9598
Stephanie Wissel
Astronomy Physics AMON Cosmic Rays Multimessenger Astrophysics Neutrinos CFT CMA CTOC

Stephanie Wissel's work centers on multi-messenger astrophysics, with a particular emphasis on ultra-high energy neutrinos. Neutrinos play a key role in this growing field that combines observations from neutrinos, photons, cosmic rays, and gravitational waves to understand particle accelerators and the extreme physics that drives them. Recognizing that neutrinos interact rarely and the most energetic of them are quite rare, I am involved in several experiments that use efficient radio detection techniques to maximize the chance of a discovery in a new energy regime (>10 PeV). She currently works on ARA, BEACON, PUEO, RNO-G, and IceCube-Gen2. She has been recognized for her work with an NSF CAREER Award as the PI on the BEACON experiment and with a Downsbrough Early Career Development Professorship in Physics

Stephanie started her career at the University of Dallas where she received a B.S. in Physics in 2004. She started studying multi-messenger astrophysics as a graduate student at the University of Chicago working on both the gamma ray and cosmic ray astrophysics with the VERITAS and TrICE experiments, graduating in 2010. She went on to a postdoc at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab doing work in Science Education and plasma physics. In 2012, she started working on radio detection of neutrinos at UCLA with the ANITA and T-510 experiments. She was a professor at the California Polytechnic State University from 2015 to 2019, expanding her work on radio neutrino experiments to ANITA, ARA, BEACON, RNO-G, and related efforts.

Stephanie likes Scrabble, cooking, photography, traveling and hiking with her family.

Publications
  1. R. Prechelt, others “Analysis of a tau neutrino origin for the near-horizon air shower events observed by the fourth flight of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna.” Phys. Rev. D 105 4 (2022) doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.105.042001
  2. M. Aartsen, others “IceCube-Gen2: the window to the extreme Universe.” J. Phys. G 48 6 (2021) doi:10.1088/1361-6471/abbd48
  3. Q. Abarr, others “The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO): a white paper.” JINST 16 08 (2021) doi:10.1088/1748-0221/16/08/P08035
  4. J. Aguilar, others “Design and Sensitivity of the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G).” JINST 16 03 (2021) doi:10.1088/1748-0221/16/03/P03025
  5. Stephanie Wissel, others “Prospects for high-elevation radio detection of 100 PeV tau neutrinos.” JCAP 11 (2020) doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2020/11/065
  6. P. Allison, others “Design and performance of an interferometric trigger array for radio detection of high-energy neutrinos.” Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 930 (2019) doi:10.1016/j.nima.2019.01.067
  7. P. Gorham, others “Constraints on the ultrahigh-energy cosmic neutrino flux from the fourth flight of ANITA.” Phys. Rev. D 99 12 (2019) doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.99.122001
  8. A. Romero-Wolf, others “Comprehensive analysis of anomalous ANITA events disfavors a diffuse tau-neutrino flux origin.” Phys. Rev. D 99 6 (2019) doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.99.063011
  9. J. Avva, others “Development Toward a Ground-Based Interferometric Phased Array for Radio Detection of High Energy Neutrinos.” Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 869 (2017) doi:10.1016/j.nima.2017.07.009
  10. K. Belov, others “Accelerator measurements of magnetically-induced radio emission from particle cascades with applications to cosmic-ray air showers.” Phys. Rev. Lett. 116 14 (2016) doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.141103

Stephanie Wissel's research group

Name Role Affiliations Email Phone Office Centers Research topics
Julien Alfaro Julien Alfaro Graduate Student Physics jpa5771@psu.edu +1 814 865 7533 204 Osmond Laboratory CMA, IGC Cosmic Rays, Multimessenger Astrophysics, Neutrinos
Bryan Hendricks Bryan Hendricks Graduate Student Physics blh5615@psu.edu 815-216-0835 204 Osmond Laboratory IGC Neutrinos
Ryan Krebs Ryan Krebs Graduate Student Physics rjk5416@psu.edu (814) 865-7533 322 Osmond Laboratory CMA, IGC Multimessenger Astrophysics, Neutrinos
Yuchieh Ku Yuchieh Ku Graduate Student Physics yuchieh@psu.edu 8148628153 204 Osmond Laboratory IGC Neutrinos
Researcher standing behind a green bike, and in front of a silver pickup truck Laurel Oneill Postdoc Astronomy laurel@psu.edu NA 428 Davey Laboratory IGC Cosmic Rays
Andrew Zeolla Andrew Zeolla Graduate Student Physics avz5228@psu.edu 7138709006 204 Osmond Laboratory CMA Cosmic Rays, Multimessenger Astrophysics, Neutrinos

Stephanie Wissel's former group members

Name Role Affiliations Email Phone Office Centers Research topics
Kaeli Hughes Kaeli Hughes Postdoc Astronomy, Physics kaeli@psu.edu +1 6142906343 N/A Davey Laboratory CMA Cosmic Rays, Multimessenger Astrophysics, Neutrinos
Marco Muzio Marco Muzio Faculty Astronomy, Physics msm6428@psu.edu – 322 Whitmore Laboratory CMA Cosmic Rays, Multimessenger Astrophysics, Neutrinos
Christoph Welling Christoph Welling Postdoc Astronomy cjw7007@psu.edu – 206 D Whitmore Laboratory IGC Multimessenger Astrophysics
About our wordmark
Monica Rincon Ramirez

The IGC wordmark was created by Monica Rincon Ramirez while she was a graduate student at the Institute. Monica enjoys drawing new connections between fundamental theory and observations. Her graduate work included general relativity, loop quantum gravity, and quantum fields in cosmological backgrounds; her thesis focused on effective quantum corrections to gravitational phenomena from spinfoams and applications to cosmology. She received her PhD in 2024.

The wordmark symbolizes the scope of research at the IGC. The base represents quantum gravity, evoking the quantum geometrical picture from spinfoams and loop quantum gravity — approaches studied at the Center for Fundamental Theory. The middle shows galaxies embedded in a smooth surface characteristic of spacetime in general relativity and the larger physical scales studied at the Center for Theoretical and Observational Cosmology. The top curves to an extreme representing a supermassive black hole accompanied by an energetic jet, with a binary black hole pair nearby — the high-energy phenomena studied at the Center for Multimessenger Astrophysics.