MACROS 2026

23 Apr 2026, 08:00 → 24 Apr 2026, 18:00 US/Eastern

Energy and Environment Lab Room 189 (Penn State )

James DeLaunay (Penn State)

Join us on April 23rd and 24th at Penn State for the MACROS 2026 workshop, where we will discuss all about multimessenger astrophysics with high-energy neutrinos! 

Each day of the workshop will consist of several invited talks followed by panel lead then group lead discussions.  More about the discussion sessions can be found here. 

MACROS 2026 is completely early career researcher lead, where the entire organizing committee and all of the invited speakers are early career. We encourage early career participation, but researchers of all career levels are welcome to attend and participate in the workshop.  

Funded by the Institute for Gravitation and Cosmos (IGC) under its new Multimessenger Astrophysics of High-Energy Cosmic Neutrinos Focus Initiative (NuMMA FI), there will be no registration fee for this workshop. Lunch will be provided on both days of the workshop (report any dietary restrictions when registering). 

The NuMMA FI is an organized three year effort to make progress on our three neutrino-based pillars,

• Astrophysics with high-energy neutrinos
• UHE neutrino discovery
• BSM physics with cosmic neutrinos

This workshop kicks off the beginning of this effort by encouraging collaboration and the exchange of ideas. The science program will also be based on these three pillars. 

If you plan to attend please register so that we may know who and how many will be attending. 

Please join the MACROS 2026 Slack for better communication 

MACROS (Multi-Messenger Approaches to Cosmic Rays: Origins and Space Frontiers)

Organizing Committee - 

• Jimmy DeLaunay (Penn State) 
• Carlos Blanco (Penn State)
• Rostom Mbarek (Princeton)
• Riya Shah (UTokyo, IPMU)
• Christoph Welling (Penn State) 

 

Invited Speakers - 

• Kaeli Hughes (Ohio State University)
• Chiara Bellenghi (Technical University of Munich)
• Robert Stein (University of Maryland)
• Alisa Galishnikova (Flatiron Institute)
• Rachel Scrandis (University of Chicago)
• Bei Zhou (Fermilab)
• Gonzalo Herrera (MIT / Harvard)
• Nick Kamp (Harvard)
• Qinrui Liu (Simon Fraser University)
• Lea Marcotulli (DESY)
• Thong Nguyen (Stockholm University)

Thursday 23 April

Registration

Time to arrive, get settled, and get your name tag.

Welcome

Welcome.pdf

UHE Neutrino Detection

1 UHE Neutrino Experiments

Speaker: Dr Kaeli Hughes (Ohio State)

Hughes_MACROS_2026.pdf

IceBreaker

Coffee Break

UHE Neutrino Detection

2 Using PUEO to Search for UHE Neutrinos

Speaker: Rachel Scrandis (University of Chicago)

Scrandis_MACROS2026.pdf

BSM Physics

3 The Cosmic Neutrino Background, Dark Matter and Neutrino Telescopes

The Cosmic Neutrino Background (CnuB) is the oldest relic population of Standard Model particles in the Universe, carrying information from about one second after the Big Bang. Its detection would be a major milestone for cosmology and astroparticle physics. Here I will discuss a detection strategy based on the scattering of cosmic rays off relic neutrinos over cosmological distances, which can produce a boosted CnuB component extending into the energy range accessible to neutrino telescopes such as IceCube and next-generation detectors. I will then show how high-energy neutrinos from active galactic nuclei can also be used to probe dark matter. In particular, I will discuss how current data from NGC 1068 and TXS 0506+056 allow us to place leading constraints on dark matter-neutrino, dark matter-electron, and dark matter-proton interactions, and could give us a plausible hint of dark matter-photon interactions.

Speaker: Dr Gonzalo Herrera (MIT / Harvard)

The_Cnub_DM_nu_telescopes_Herrera.pdf

Lunch

Catered lunch at venue

BSM Physics

4 The Sun as a Dark Matter Laboratory: The Neutrino Messenger

Speaker: Thong Nguyen (Stockholm University)

ThongNguyen_MACROS.pdf

5 Fundamental Physics with Ultrahigh Energy Neutrinos

Neutrinos provide a unique window into the extreme Universe and physics beyond the Standard Model: their nonzero masses already indicate new physics, and their weak interactions allow them to probe extreme energies, cosmic distances, and the dark sector. In this talk, I will present an interdisciplinary approach to neutrino physics, in particular, UHE neutrinos. I will first present neutrino BSM, in particular, neutrino self-interactions (2501.07624, 2512.00165). Then, I will present final state radiation, a radiative correction that can cause tens of percent corrections on UHE neutrino detection (2403.07984).

Speaker: Dr Bei Zhou (Fermilab & KICP, UChicago)

20260423 Bei Zhou, Penn State MACROS.pdf

Coffee Break

Panel: Speakers Panel - UHE detection and BSM with Astrophysical Neutrinos

Speaker lead panel about MMA

Conveners: Bei Zhou (Fermilab & KICP, UChicago), Dr Christoph Welling (Penn State), Gonzalo Herrera (MIT / Harvard), Kaeli Hughes (Ohio State), Rachel Scrandis (University of Chicago), Thong Nguyen (Stockholm University)

Coffee Break

Group Discussion

Attendee lead discussion about the topics of the day. UHE neutrino detection and astrophysical neutrinos as BSM probes.

Conveners: Nicholas Kamp, Yuchieh Ku (Penn State)

Friday 24 April

MMA with Neutrinos

6 MULTIMESSENGER ASTRONOMY IN THE NEUTRINO ERA

Speaker: Chiara Bellenghi (Universität München)

MACROS_Bellenghi (1).pdf

7 Sites of proton acceleration around black holes

Speaker: Dr Alisa Galishnikova (Flatiron Institute)

galishnikova-macros.pdf

Coffee Break

MMA with Neutrinos

8 The Astrophysical Neutrino Detectors of Today and Tomorrow

Speaker: Nicholas Kamp

Kamp_MACROS@PennState_2026_reduced.pdf

9 The Flavor Composition of the High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrinos

Speaker: Qinrui Liu (Simon Fraser University)

MACROS_qliu.pdf

Lunch

Catered lunch at venue

MMA with EM

10 Optical / IR Transients

Speaker: Dr Robert Stein (UMD/JSI/NASA GSFC)

11 Multi-wavelength perspective of multimessenger sources

Speaker: Dr Lea Marcotulli (DESY Zeuthen)

MACROS_2026_Marcotulli.pptx

Coffee Break

Panel: MMA

Speaker lead panel about MMA

Conveners: Alisa Galishnikova (Flatiron Institute), Chiara Bellenghi (Universität München), Lea Marcotulli (DESY Zeuthen), Nicholas Kamp, Qinrui Liu (Simon Fraser University), Robert Stein (UMD/JSI/NASA GSFC)

Coffee Break

Group Discussion

Attendee lead discussion about the topics of the day. UHE neutrino detection and astrophysical neutrinos as BSM probes.

Conveners: Abhishek Das (Penn State), Dr Rostom Mbarek (Princeton University)

Workshop Closeout