"For years our program has aimed not only to present the progress of astronomy, but to give an opportunity to our members to hear, see, and visit with eminent scientists who actually are contributing to the ever-widening horizon of our knowledge of the universe. ”
1947 quote from club founder Dr. Jason J. Nassau
The Cleveland Astronomical Society
LECTURE NEWS: MEETINGS:
2025 - 2026
The Cleveland Astronomical Society Lecture Series
has announced the lineup of speakers for the 104th Season.
December 4, 2025
Dr. William Luszczak
Title: Exploring the Universe Through Neutrinos
Description: It will center around his work with the Neutrino observatory at the South pole known as "Ice Cube". He will also be previewing PUEO: The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations which is launching next month. Dr. Luszczac will be speaking in person at BW.
Bio Information: Dr. Luszczak is a post-Doctoral fellow and CCAPP member of The Ohio State University Astronomy Department. He received his BS in Physics from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2016 and his PhD in Physics from the University of Wisconsin in 2021. His research area does concentrate on particle astrophysics and neutrino astronomy specifically high energy neutrinos produced in flares from blazars. Dr. Luszczak has been using the ICE Cube neutrino observatory located at the South Pole. It is a cubic-kilometer particle detector in part made of Antarctic ice and located near the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. It is buried beneath the surface, extending to a depth of about 2,500 meters. ICE Cube is the first gigaton neutrino detector ever built and was primarily designed to observe neutrinos from the most violent astrophysical sources in our universe. Neutrinos, almost massless particles with no electric charge, can travel from their sources to Earth with essentially no attenuation and no deflection by magnetic fields. By using the large ICE Cube detector at the south pole Dr. Luszczak has been looking for the elusive blue light called Cherenkov radiation generated by secondary particles given off when these neutrinos interact with atoms within the detector after their travel across the universe.