Previously, she served as the Albert A. Michelson Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago as well as the dean of the Physical Sciences Division.

In 2006, she received the Chair d’ Excellence Award from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche and served as visiting professor in the Laboratoire d’AstroParticule et Cosmologie (APC).

[6][1][7] Olinto emerged as a leader of the science behind the 3,000 km2 Pierre Auger Observatory in Malargue, Argentina, built and operated by a 19-country collaboration.

Her group pioneered in depth studies of the physics and astrophysics of ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) including the propagation and neutrino production of UHE nuclei and acceleration models based on newborn pulsars.

[1][6][12] Starting in 2017, Olinto serves as principal investigator for POEMMA (Probe of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics), providing the conceptual design for the NASA space mission.