Jethro Stoffels, a recent physics doctorate recipient, delivered a lecture on Friday, October 9, at the ONS Maerlant-atheneum in Blankenberge, detailing his research into neutrino detection on the Greenland ice sheet, lokaalnieuws.online reported.
Jethro Stoffels at ONS Maerlant-atheneum
The presentation took place at 3:00 p.m. in the upper refectory of the school located at Van Maerlantstraat 1. Stoffels wore an Alpine cap during the event, appearing in group photographs with attendees in the school where he was a student in 2017. The lecture targeted senior students, though former teachers and members of the public also attended without requiring prior subject knowledge. Stoffels explained his academic path from the Blankenberge classroom to participating in international research teams, explicitly thanking the school and his former mathematics and physics teacher, Olbren Depaepe.
IceCube Success Precedes Greenland Neutrino Lecture
The timing of the lecture coincided with broader recognition for neutrino research within the academic community. On Tuesday, October 6, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Belgian physicist Francis Halzen for his work as the driving force behind the IceCube neutrino observatory at the South Pole. The Maerlant school maintains a direct connection to that observatory through Depaepe, who previously collaborated on the IceCube project at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
Building Electronics for the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland
Stoffels studied physics and astronomy at the VUB and successfully defended his doctoral thesis there on Tuesday, September 22. His doctoral work involved contributions to the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G). While IceCube searches the Antarctic ice for light flashes, RNO-G detects radio signals emitted by neutrinos with an even higher energy in the Greenland ice sheet. Stoffels built and tested detector electronics and spent a month stationed at Summit Station, a research facility in the center of the ice sheet, measuring how radiosignals propagate through the glacial ice.
Upcoming ESA Lunar Detector Project in Geneva
That initiative involves developing a detector scheduled for a 2030 lunar mission under the European Space Agency program titled Small Missions for Exploration – Destination the Moon. Following the October 9 lecture, the Maerlant-atheneum hosted a brief reception for attendees in the upper refectory.
