Kelly named McKnight Land-Grant Professor

Assistant Professor Patrick Kelly, has been awarded a 2022 McKnight Land-Grant Professorship, which recognizes outstanding accomplishments and promise among the the University's assistant professors.

Kelly was recognized for his research probing the Universe’s Dark Matter and Energy and Uncovering the Mergers of Neutron Stars. Kelly both acquires observations and builds instruments to address the nature of dark matter, dark energy, and cosmic explosions. A preponderance of the universe’s matter and energy is dark -- it does not emit or interact with light – and Dr. Kelly uses supernova explosions and gravitational lensing of individual stars across the universe to probe its composition. Recent detections of ripples in spacetime also reveal merging neutron stars. He is constructing two powerful sets of telescopes to find and understand these cataclysmic events.

The Land-Grant Professorship comes with a monetary award which to be used to further Kelly's research.  The designation of “McKnight Land-Grant Professor” is held by recipients for a two-year period. 

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