Rate My Professor Amy Furniss

Amy K. Furniss is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Physics Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, affiliated with the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics (SCIPP). She earned her B.S. in Physics from Humboldt State University in 2006 and her Ph.D. in Physics from UC Santa Cruz in 2013, focusing on very high-energy astrophysics. Following her graduate studies, Furniss completed a postdoctoral position at Stanford University, advancing research in high-energy astrophysics. In 2015, she joined California State University, East Bay on the tenure track, rising to Associate Professor. She returned to UC Santa Cruz in 2023 in her current role.

Furniss specializes in gamma-ray astrophysics, studying extreme astrophysical phenomena through observations of very high-energy gamma rays. As spokesperson for the international VERITAS Collaboration of approximately 100 scientists, she leads efforts with an array of four imaging Cherenkov telescopes detecting gamma rays from 50 GeV to 50 TeV, complementing Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope data. Elected to this position in 2023, her work supports the transition to the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory. She has contributed to numerous publications, including VERITAS observations of blazars such as 'Multimessenger observations of a flaring blazar coincident with high-energy neutrino IceCube-170922A' (Science, 2018) and studies on distant blazars like PKS 0447-439. In education, Furniss develops activity-based modular teaching resources and high-impact practices for undergraduate physics courses. She directs the Cal-Bridge Summer Program, placing underrepresented scholars in STEM research opportunities and growing participation from 5 to 67 annually. She also serves on the Physics Department's Committee on Diversity and Climate and participates in outreach via the Santa Cruz Organization for Outreach in Physics.