Kevin J. Kelly, as assistant professor at Texas A&M University, was recognized with the APS’s 2025 Henry Primakoff Award for Early-Career Particle Physics. Kelly is a University of Notre Dame 2013 gradaute in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
The citiation for his award reads: For significant contributions to our understanding of the neutrino sector and proposing novel directions and search strategies, bolstering the physics output of current and future neutrino experiments.
Kelly, who joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2022, works at the interface of two of the biggest outstanding mysteries in particle physics: the origin of neutrino masses and the nature of dark matter in the universe. His research spans the smallest scales to the largest, focusing on current and next-generation experiments with the potential to shed light on both through new physics in the neutrino sector and the ongoing search for light dark matter and any associated new particles that may exist in that realm.
“By studying the capabilities of these experiments, not only can we determine how they can extract all possible information out of their data, but we can also explore whether there are connections between the two mysteries of neutrino mass and dark matter,” Kelly said.
Kelly spent time in research with Prof. Mike Hildreth, who is now the Dean of the Graduate School, and the Associate Provost and Vice President for Graduate Studies. Hildreth said, "Kelly was a really good student." He went on to say, "I'm not at all surprised that he has become a rising star. I'm very pleased that he got his start in particle physics here at Notre Dame, even if he did switch to working in theory rather than experiment." In 2013, Kelly received the Dean's Research Award that is presented in recognition of exceptional research within and across the traditional boundaries of scholarly disciplines to a graduating senior who embraces, facilitates, and fosters an environment of scientific inquiry. Kelly went to to complete his PhD at Northwestern University.
(portions of this information are Texas A&M story posting)