{"id":502817,"date":"2026-06-16T17:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T17:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/502817\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T17:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T17:02:07","slug":"christina-wang-of-fermilab-receives-prestigious-award-for-advances-in-dark-matter-detection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/502817\/","title":{"rendered":"Christina Wang of Fermilab receives prestigious award for advances in dark matter detection"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n
\n\t\t <\/p>\n

Christina Wang, a postdoctoral researcher and Lederman Fellow at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, has been awarded the American Physical Society\u2019s 2026 Mitsuyoshi Tanaka Award in Experimental Particle Physics for her pioneering work in particle detection. Her innovative techniques, which open new pathways for identifying elusive dark matter candidates, are advancing the search for physics beyond the Standard Model.<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t
\n\t
\n\t <\/p>\n

The American Physical Society has honored Christina Wang, a postdoctoral researcher and Lederman Fellow<\/a> at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, with the prestigious 2026 Mitsuyoshi Tanaka Award in Experimental Particle Physics<\/a> for developing novel techniques to detect new particles.<\/p>\n

Wang received the award for \u201cpioneering a groundbreaking detection technique using the Compact Muon Solenoid detector [at CERN<\/a>] to search for weakly-coupled sub-GeV mass dark matter via long-lived particle searches, and for groundbreaking work in quantum sensing, allowing researchers to search for types of currently unobservable dark matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her thesis details two complementary detection techniques that help researchers search for new physics beyond the Standard Model.<\/p>\n

The Standard Model is a well-tested physics theory that explains the fundamental structure of matter. Researchers who study physics beyond the Standard Model, such as Wang, seek to resolve unanswered questions and unexplainable phenomena in high-energy physics that are observable, but not currently accounted for, including the origin of dark matter.<\/p>\n

Scientists theorize that dark matter makes up roughly 85% of all matter in the universe. Researchers have never directly observed dark matter. However, they know it exists through observing the gravitational influence it exerts on visible matter. Wang and her collaborators are working diligently to detect and understand this mysterious substance.<\/p>\n

Wang\u2019s first approach reinvented how the CMS experiment detects long-lived particles \u2014 decaying particles that are notoriously difficult to observe due to their weak interactions with matter. Her method uses the 75 million electronic sensors inside CMS, originally designed to detect muons, to create a shower of secondary long-lived particles, extending their observable state.<\/p>\n

\"PortraitFermilab Lederman Fellow, Christina Wang, received the Mitsuyoshi Tanaka Award in Experimental Particle Physics from the American Physical Society for her innovative research on identifying elusive dark matter. Credit: JJ Starr<\/p>\n

The second approach leverages quantum sensing technology to detect individual low-energy photons. Using superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors<\/a>, researchers can search for photons with exceptionally low noise, improving their ability to identify the extremely faint signals that potential dark matter candidates may produce.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am deeply honored to receive the Tanaka Award,\u201d said Wang. \u201cSeeing the list of previous recipients makes this award even more meaningful to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is America\u2019s national laboratory for particle physics and accelerator research. Fermi Forward Discovery Group manages Fermilab for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Visit Fermilab\u2019s website at www.fnal.gov<\/a> and follow us on social media.<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Christina Wang, a postdoctoral researcher and Lederman Fellow at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[11913,1747,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-502817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-award","tag-dark-matter","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}