University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa graduate student Michael Litke has been awarded a U.S. Department of Energy SCGSR Fellowship to conduct his doctoral thesis research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Working with Professor Sven Vahsen, Litke’s research focuses on developing innovative detectors that measure the direction of neutral particles. His work at Oak Ridge will specifically involve directional neutron measurements to test the feasibility of a proposed future neutrino experiment.

Professor Zepeng Li from the UH Mānoa Department of Physics and Astronomy is leading a research project selected for the U.S. Department of Energy’s inaugural Genesis Mission. His work involves developing an AI foundation model to accelerate the search for neutrinoless double beta decay, a rare nuclear process that could reveal the nature of “ghost particles” known as neutrinos. The project aims to create a unified AI framework to streamline data analysis across various detector technologies used by researchers worldwide. This initiative is eligible for a Phase I award of up to $750,000 over nine months to develop these innovative AI-enabled scientific tools.

Researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UH) are contributing to a newly approved U.S.–Japan project to advance X-ray beam monitoring technology for SuperKEKB, the world’s leading electron-positron collider. The project, titled “Enhanced X-ray Beam Size Monitor,” has been approved by the U.S.–Japan Joint Committee for a total of $235,000, with support expected through the U.S. Department of Energy Office of High Energy Physics.