Kohta Murase

Kohta Murase is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy & Astrophysics at The Pennsylvania State University, affiliated with the Eberly College of Science. His research focuses on particle astrophysics, theoretical physics, gravitational physics, and cosmology. He holds external affiliations with the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics.

Education:

• Ph.D., Physics, Kyoto University (2010)
• M.S., Physics, Kyoto University (2007)
• B.S., Physics, The University of Tokyo (2005)

Research Interests: Particle astrophysics, neutrino astronomy, high-energy cosmic rays, gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei, dark matter, and gravitational wave astrophysics. His work bridges theoretical models with observational data from facilities like IceCube, CTA, and GRAND.

Key Contributions: Leading studies on neutrino origins, jetted transients, and multimessenger astronomy. Pioneered models linking cosmic accelerators (AGN, GRBs) to IceCube neutrinos. Active in GRAND (radio neutrino detection) and CTA (Cherenkov Telescope Array) collaborations.

Awards:

• 34th Nishinomiya-Yukawa Memorial Prize (2019)
• Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2017–2019)
• Hubble Fellowship (2012–2014)

Advising & Grants: Mentored 8 graduate students and 12 postdocs. Current advisees include Abhishek Das. Principal investigator on NSF and NASA grants focusing on cosmic accelerators and neutrino astrophysics.

Labs/Teams: Head of the Murase Group at Penn State, collaborating with the IceCube, CTA, and GRAND consortia. Active in theoretical astrophysics and computational modeling of relativistic phenomena.