Mehr U Nisa

Mehr U Nisa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Michigan State University, where she joined the faculty in 2023 after completing a postdoctoral position at the same institution from 2019-2023. She is an experimental particle astrophysicist working at the intersection of particle physics and high-energy astrophysics, with significant contributions to neutrino and gamma-ray astronomy.

• Michigan State University (2023-present): Assistant Professor
• Michigan State University (2019-2023): Postdoctoral Researcher
• University of Rochester (2018): Ph.D. in Physics and Astronomy
• LUMS (2012): B.S. in Physics

Dr. Nisa's research focuses on multimessenger astronomy, particularly using observations of high-energy photons (TeV gamma rays) and neutrinos to investigate cosmic-ray accelerators and dark matter. Her work spans both neutrino astronomy and very-high-energy gamma-ray observations, with an emphasis on constraining beyond-the-standard-model physics. She leads research projects that involve enhancing sensitivity to point-source and extended-source neutrino searches, cross-correlating gamma-ray data with neutrinos, and using machine learning to improve directional reconstruction of neutrino events.

Her extensive publication record in high-energy astrophysics reveals strong trends in multimessenger astronomy, with particular emphasis on neutrino point-source searches, gamma-ray source identification, and dark matter constraints. Her recent work shows increasing focus on machine learning applications in neutrino astronomy and the development of next-generation neutrino telescopes like P-ONE.

Dr. Nisa is actively involved in multiple major international collaborations, including the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-ray Experiment, the Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO), and the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment (P-ONE). She maintains a strong commitment to mentoring students, particularly women and under-represented minorities in physics, and encourages interested students to reach out for guidance on navigating research careers.

Her laboratory work primarily involves data analysis from neutrino and gamma-ray observatories, with computational research focusing on improving detection algorithms and developing new analysis techniques for multimessenger astronomy.