Unveiling the neutrino sky with IceCube

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory consists of a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice instrumented with sensitive photodetectors deployed deep beneath the surface of the glacier at the geographic South Pole. In 2013 IceCube announced the detection of a cosmic flux of high-energy neutrinos in the TeV-PeV range. This breakthrough discovery has prompted a wide-ranging observational effort aimed at identifying the sources of the neutrino flux which combines IceCube measurements with observations spanning the entire electromagnetic spectrum. The detection of these sources would represent a major step forward for high-energy astrophysics that could reveal the acceleration sites of cosmic rays and provide a unique probe into the extreme environments in which these particles are produced. Recent multi-messenger campaigns have yielded the first evidence for a distant active galaxy as a high-energy neutrino source. This talk will introduce the IceCube detector, provide a summary of recent highlights from its wide research program concentrating on the search for neutrino sources, and outline how future instrumental developments may help pinpoint additional neutrino counterparts.