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Lehman Connections to Nobel-Winning Research
Physics Nobel Laureate Francis Halzen and Azadeh Keivani at a 2018 press conference announcing findings from IceCube Neutrino Observatory (photo courtesy of Azadeh Keivani)
October 6, 2026
The 2026 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Francis Halzen, has a special connection to two Lehman College faculty members whose work was based on data from the pioneering research facility he established, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory.
The observatory is a massive particle detector at the South Pole made of Antarctic ice, buried beneath the surface and extending to a depth of about 2,500 meters.
As a post-doctoral researcher in Physics, dean of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies Azadeh Keivani worked with Halzen on a major 2017 finding made through the observatory confirming that high-energy neutrinos may have an astrophysical source. These tiny, almost massless atomic particles rarely interact with matter and are difficult to detect.
“IceCube Neutrino Observatory opened up a new window to our universe, and for the discovery of high energy neutrinos of coming for outside our solar system,” said Keivani. “Now a new field of neutrino astronomy and multi messenger astronomy has been born thanks to Francis’s and IceCube’s work.”
Keivani was one of only two postdocs invited to a 2018 National Science Foundation press conference announcing the finding.
Recently, Physics professor and chair Luis Anchordoqui has been working with more recent IceCube data and co-authored a paper with Halzen last year positing the existence of tiny five-dimensional primordial black holes, evidenced by a high-energy neutrino detected more than a mile below the polar ice in 2022.