Xinhua Bai

Appointments

Research Expertise

Starting from nuclear and particle physics, my research interest evolved into astroparticle physics in late 1990's, with focus on high energy cosmic rays, muons in cosmic ray showers, high energy neutrino astronomy and direct dark matter search. I have worked for about 10 years as a research scientist at Bartol Research Institute and the University of Delaware on high-energy cosmic ray and neutrino astronomy projects SPASE-II/AMANDA/IceCube. I joined SDSMT in 2009 to initiate research and education programs in particle/astroparticle physics. Since then, I have contributed to direct dark matter search experiment Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment, the LZ project, and involved in the long-baseline neutrino project LBNE, LBNF/DUNE. Since 2020, I have been focusing on IceCube and Gen2 while leading the NSF RII Track-2 FEC: The IceCube EPSCoR Initiative (IEI)project. Based on the new research capacity obtained  through this FEC project, I extended our research to germanium-based technologies for fundamental physics and medical imaging in 2025 by co-leading a statewide initiative advancing the Germanium-based Science and Technology Advancement Research (Ge-STAR) funded by the NSF.

Teaching

Since joining SDSMT, besides four physics laboratory courses and four physics design courses, I have taught 12 physics major courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels. I also developed and taught two specialized graduate courses for the South Dakota Physics Ph.D. program: PHYS-733 Experimental Particle Physics and PHYS-764 Neutrino Physics. I love teaching physics because it allows me to connect with young minds as we strive to understand the nature. Teaching physics also helps me to better understand it, thereby allowing me to savor this fleeting life in the face of the vast and mysterious nature of existence.