IceCube In-Ice Antarctic Telescope

Casey O'Hara has worked in the past as a mechanical engineer designing robots and implantable medical devices, but for the fast five years he has been teaching physics and integrated science at Carlmont High School. Curiosity drives his passion for teaching science, as it affords him the opportunity to constantly learn new things while helping his students learn. Mr. O'Hara's students apply physics to design, build, and perform on their own musical instruments, finding connections between physics and music. When not in the classroom, Mr. O'Hara likes to appease his curiosity through travel, mostly to tropical climates and warm beaches. Mr. O'Hara thinks that participating in the IceCube project will be an amazing opportunity to experience cutting edge physics research, and hopes that during his visit to the South Pole he will, in addition, witness climate change research.

Dr. Jim Madsen has been at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls (UWRF) since 1989, and is currently a professor of physics and chair of the Physics Department. He has been involved with the IceCube project and its predecessor, AMANDA (Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array), for about a decade. Dr. Madsen's original contribution to the project was to investigate the performance of the IceCube neutrino telescope using computer simulations. More recently, he has been working on surface detectors at the South Pole known as IceTop. In addition to research, Dr. Madsen is involved in education and outreach for the IceCube project including professional development courses for teachers and science and math instruction for the UWRF Upward Bound Program. He is also working with the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation. His research interests include condensed matter and astrophysics, and he has worked with numerous undergraduate students and teachers on his various projects in Antarctica. You can read more about Dr. Madsen here [http://www.icecube.wisc.edu/]

Francis Halzen, the Principal investigator of the IceCube project, originally conceived the idea to use the ice at the South Pole to track high-energy neutrinos. Dr. Halzen is the Hilldale and Gregory Breit Professor at the University Wisconsin-Madison where he does particle physics, cosmology, and astrophysics theory. Dr. Halzen is a strong believer in the power of cutting-edge science to engage people at all levels, and values the opportunities to bring IceCube science to the classroom.

The current spokesperson for the IceCube collaboration is Tom Gaisser. He is the Martin A. Pomerantz Professor of Physics at the Univesity of Delaware. Tom is a well known astroparticle and cosmic ray physicist who promoted the concept of an array of detectors on the surface as part of IceCube.. Tom has been instrumental in getting an Antarctic Research page up at the University of Delaware where he and others have posted blogs from the South Pole.