Read this feature in SLAC’s News Center.
Newswise — Ann Wang, who’s on the hunt for dark matter, has been awarded the 2026 Panofsky Fellowship at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
The Panofsky Fellowship, named after SLAC’s founder and first director Wolfgang K. H. “Pief” Panofsky, recognizes exceptional early-career scientists who would most benefit from the opportunity to do their research at the lab and provides generous funding for five years of research at SLAC.
During her fellowship, Wang will help develop a next-generation, ultra-sensitive dark matter detector. Though scientists think this invisible substance makes up 85 percent of the matter in the universe, it hasn’t been directly detected. To do so would shed light on one of the biggest mysteries in our universe.
“I think what fundamentally drives me is looking for new physics – measuring fundamental aspects of nature that will change how we understand it,” Wang said. “And I think that the best chance we have for new physics is dark matter.”
Turning down the noise
When Wang first learned about particle physics during a required undergraduate class at the California Institute of Technology, she was hooked. During her PhD, she combed through particle collisions in the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for the signatures of long-lived, massive particles that would point to new physics.
Since joining SLAC in 2021, first as a Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) fellow and then as a SLAC research associate, she’s been working on the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment, analyzing its data for signs of dark matter.
“Ann came to the LZ group at SLAC from the ATLAS experiment and has quickly adapted to the dark matter field, demonstrating great leadership and drive. Her work could have a major impact on the design of XLZD, the proposed successor to LZ,” said Tom Shutt, professor of particle physics and astrophysics at SLAC and Stanford University. “All told, she’ll be a great addition to our effort.”
Like LZ, XLZD would feature a large vat of cold liquid xenon. Physicists are trying to catch a type of proposed dark matter particle, called weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), interacting with this xenon. While they haven’t seen this signal with LZ yet, XLZD would contain 10 times as much xenon, further increase the sensitivity to WIMPs.
More sensitive detectors, however, also have more backgrounds, or signals that mimic dark matter’s mark. Though LZ sits nearly a mile beneath Earth’s surface in the Sanford Underground Research Facility to shield it from the constant barrage of radiation from space, it’s not totally safe from backgrounds.
“We were surprised to see instrumental backgrounds caused by different parts of the detector producing so many spurious signals,” said Wang. The quantity and breakdown of these sources are not well understood, so she’ll characterize them in LZ to help XLZD avoid them. “If we don’t properly mitigate them for the next detector, they might scale in a way that we don’t expect and be a substantial background. If we can understand them, we can mitigate them in the design.”
Cool connections
Wang will also advance the experiment’s electronics in preparation for XLZD. In LZ, these electronics sit outside of the xenon vat, which is kept at about negative 150 degrees Fahrenheit – a temperature too cold for ordinary electronics to function. 50-foot-long cables send signals from the detectors inside the vat to these electronics for storage and analysis.
This cabling contributes to backgrounds. To get rid of it, Wang plans to work with SLAC engineers experienced in cryogenic electronics to develop cold-ready electronics that can be moved into the vat in XLZD.
“The fellowship enables me to bring my own ideas to the table and execute them with the people and technical capabilities of a national lab,” she said. “SLAC also has an extremely strong dark matter program. I find it intellectually enriching to work with people pursuing other models for dark matter than WIMPs.”
In addition to her research, Wang looks forward to continuing working with students at Stanford and mentoring the next generation of dark matter physicists. “I wouldn’t be here today without the tremendous mentorship that I’ve gotten throughout my career,” Wang said. “I’m looking forward to paying that back. That’s one of the things that really drives me.”
About SLAC
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory explores how the universe works at the biggest, smallest and fastest scales and invents powerful tools used by researchers around the globe. As world leaders in ultrafast science and bold explorers of the physics of the universe, we forge new ground in understanding our origins and building a healthier and more sustainable future. Our discovery and innovation help develop new materials and chemical processes and open unprecedented views of the cosmos and life’s most delicate machinery. Building on more than 60 years of visionary research, we help shape the future by advancing areas such as quantum technology, scientific computing and the development of next-generation accelerators.
SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.
