Dr. Karen Andeen, associate professor of physics in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, has been named the 2023-24 Way Klingler Sabbatical Fellowship Award winner.
The Sabbatical Review Committee nominates the Way Klingler Sabbatical Fellowship Award winner, who receives his or her full salary, plus two additional months of summer pay and $10,000 to fund travel and expenses related to research conducted during the year-long sabbatical.
Andeen’s research focuses on the physics behind violent astrophysical events, such as supernovae (stars that explode) and gamma ray bursts (jets of energetic light particles that shoot out along certain axes as stars collapse into a black hole). These events produce debris in the form of particles called cosmic rays, which are accelerated to energies unattainable on earth.
During her sabbatical, Andeen will work to build and prepare new telescopes for use at the South Pole toward a goal of making new measurements that are not possible anywhere else on Earth. Andeen leads a team within the IceCube collaboration, a group of approximately 350 scientists at 58 institutions in 15 countries which has built and now operates the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a world-class observatory at the geographic South Pole.
Receiving the Way Klingler Sabbatical Award will help Andeen dedicate her undivided attention to helping facilitate the IceCube collaboration’s plan to build and deploy several new upgrades at the South Pole in the next two polar seasons. She is also working toward several publications using data from the detectors that already exist at the South Pole.
She will be recognized at the Distinguished Scholars Reception on Tuesday, April 4.
