|
|
| Name |
Cabrera, Blas |
| Location
|
Stanford University |
| Primary Field
|
Physics |
| Secondary Field
|
Astronomy |
 Election Citation
|
|
Cabrera is an instrumentalist who pioneered new science in magnetic monopole search, measurement of fundamental constants, and the search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles. |
|
Research Interests
|
|
For more than thirty years the research group of Blas Cabrera, within the Physics Department at Stanford University, has focused on identifying what makes up the dark matter using novel detectors utilizing superconducting transition edge
sensors to detect particle interactions within large crystals of germanium and silicon. Over the last three decades there has been compelling evidence from many independent experiments that the dark matter, which is responsible for the
formation of structure within our universe, must be made up of a new and as yet undiscovered elementary particle. His research started with the suggestion in 1979 that the dark matter may be in the form of massive magnetically charged
particles or monopoles. For a number of theoretical reasons, by 1985 the favored candidate had become weakly interacting massive particles or WIMPs. These remain an important candidate today and for much of the past two decades the
international collaboration called CDMS (cryogenic dark matter search) and more recently SuperCDMS has led the world in sensitivity for low mass WIMPs. He was Spokesperson for SuperCDMS Soudan deployed in the Soudan mine in
northern Minnesota and most recently was Project Director for the SuperCDMS SNOLAB project . The experiment will soon operate larger mass detectors in the SNOLAB underground laboratory located in Sudbury, Canada. |
|
|
|