Erin O'Sullivan new Spokesperson for IceCube

"Professionally, this is definitely a big undertaking. At first, the idea of stepping into this role felt a bit daunting, but I wanted to challenge myself, and I know I’ll grow a lot during my time as spokesperson", says Erin O’Sullivan.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory detects high energy neutrinos from extreme astrophysical environments and is located inside an area a cubic kilometre in size deep beneath the South Pole ice cap. It is the world’s leading neutrino telescope and consists of light-sensitive detectors and has over 450 collaborators.

Erin O'Sullivan was selected the new spokesperson for the IceCube Collaboration in the beginning of February 2025 and will start her new position on May 1st 2025. She will be the third, of total eight, spokesperson from Sweden and the second from Uppsala University.

"I am really proud of what our Swedish IceCube groups, in Uppsala and Stockholm, have achieved and I look forward to doing my part over these next years. Personally, what excites me most is that I get to keep doing one of my favourite parts of the job—interacting with my many collaborators."

An upgrade of IceCube is planned later this year, where they will drill into the ice and deploy new, enhanced instrumentation in the detector. The upgrade is done to increase directional resolution to detect high-energy neutrinos and to measure signals from ultra-high-energy neutrinos.

"This is the first time we are expanding the detector since 2011, and it is a big deal. So, my first priority is for the Upgrade to be a success, both logistically and in terms of the good physics we will get out."

Erin O'Sullivan also would like to see the wider neutrino astronomy community coalesce. For the past decade, IceCube has been the largest neutrino telescope and this will continue to be the case in the near future, but several other telescopes of comparable size are being constructed in bodies of water in the Northern Hemisphere.

"These telescopes will have a complementary view of the sky compared to IceCube so this is an exciting development for our maturing field. I would like to develop an open and supportive community as we move toward being a field with multiple kilometer-scale instruments."

She would also like to emphazie the importance of the next generation neutrino telescope, IceCube-Gen2.

"It is very important for the field to move from the first discoveries toward more robust detections, where we can learn even more about our Universe."

Camilla Thulin