Alejandra Granados is a graduate researcher at Michigan State University (MSU), where she studies neutrinos from our very own galaxy, the Milky Way! When she’s not searching the skies for neutrinos, Alejandra is a core member of the instrumentation team at MSU that is working to build new multi-PMT digital optical module (mDOM) sensors for the IceCube Upgrade. An expansion of the IceCube detector, the Upgrade aims to boost IceCube’s sensitivity to low-energy neutrinos from the atmosphere and is scheduled to be deployed at the South Pole this upcoming field season.
Alejandra’s road to IceCube began as a high school student, when she was encouraged by her teacher to major in physics. The many interesting talks at the American Physical Society meeting in 2022 that she attended as an undergrad served as her introduction to neutrinos. Inspired, Alejandra took up coursework in particle physics and astronomy, even giving a presentation on IceCube for her astrophysics class. She joined the IceCube group at MSU as a graduate student, and she hasn’t looked back since.
“Never stop asking questions!”
Alejandra Granados
Outside the lab, Alejandra brings just as much energy and passion to her hobbies. She’s a devoted fan of Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny—fun fact: the mDOMs built at MSU are all named after Taylor Swift songs! A lifelong booklover, Alejandra’s reading tastes range from classics like Pedro Páramo and Little Women to the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez and the powerful voice of Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton. When she’s not immersed in a novel, you’ll likely find her out for a run, dancing with her cats, or attending cozy crafting sessions with friends.
In addition to all her other duties, Alejandra makes it a point to invest time in outreach efforts, encouraging younger students to pursue STEM fields as a career. This takes the form of volunteering at high schools, mentoring undergraduate students, and working towards increasing the representation of women in physics. It’s no surprise that Alejandra has a lot of good advice for younger students, chiefly to “never be afraid to ask questions about anything that’s hard to understand!”
She relates to how overwhelming it was starting out as a researcher, with lots of new information flooding in. In hindsight, asking questions of postdocs and senior graduate students would have made the experience much easier!
For more from Alejandra, you can follow her on Instagram at @alegrannados