Steven Prohira is an American physicist who works as a professor at the University of Kansas. He specializes in studying neutrinos. He was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship in 2022.

Biography

Prohira attended the Regis Jesuit High School in Colorado.^[1] Prohira then attended the Gonzaga University, where he earned a Bachelors of Arts in 2009, specializing in fine arts. He emphasized drawing and woodblock prints. His art became focused on scientific questions, however.^[2]

He went on to attend the University of Kansas, where he enrolled in a MFA program but ultimately changed his pathway to a MS in physics.^[2] He received an award from the Kansas Biological Survey.^[3] He then earned his PhD from the same university, graduating in 2018.^[4]

He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Ohio State University in their Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics department, before becoming an assistant professor at the University of Kansas.^[4]

His research began focusing on utilizing large sheets of remote ice to detect neutrinos.^[5][6] He has also proposed the use of trees as natural antennas to help detect neutrinos by their radio waves.^[7][8]

He was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship in 2022.^[9][10]

Personal life

He resides in Lawrence, Kansas.^[11]

References