Faculty Type: 
Active Faculty
Title: 
Stanley G. Wojcicki Professor
Additional Titles: 
Professor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics
Address: 

Varian Physics Rm. 144
382 Via Pueblo Mall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4060

StanfordWho directory listing

Phone Number: 
650-723-3395
Contact Email: 
cabrera@stanford.edu
Support Staff: 
Marcia Keating

What is the identity of dark matter?

Professor Cabrera’s group sends detectors deep underground in the Soudan Mine in northern Minnesota to search for evidence of weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs. If WIMPs are the dark matter, they forced the formation of structure in the universe and they are responsible for the formation of galaxies, of solar systems, and of life. Working on an international project called the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II), Professor Cabrera and colleagues from 19 other institutions seek to determine whether WIMPs make up the unidentified portion of the universe referred to as dark matter. Their search is the major effort in the United States, and is the most sensitive experiment of its kind in the world. Professor Cabrera is Spokesperson for the next generation SuperCDMS experiment, which is being built and plans to operate in the three times deeper SNOLAB in Sudbury, Canada.

The Cabrera group builds detectors not only for dark matter searches, but also for X-ray spectroscopy and single photon detection from the near infrared through the optical bands into the ultraviolet bands. All these detector technologies operate at temperatures below 1.0 Celsius degree above absolute zero using superconductivity and cryogenic techniques.

Current areas of focus:

- Search for dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles or WIMPs
- Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs)

Career History

  • B.S., 1968, University of Virginia 
  • Ph.D., 1975, Stanford University 
  • Research Associate, Stanford University, 1975-79 
  • Senior Research Associate, Stanford University, 1979-80 
  • Acting Assistant Professor, Physics Department, Stanford University, 1980-81 
  • Assistant Professor, Stanford University, 1981-84 
  • Associate Professor, Stanford University, 1984-91 
  • Professor, Stanford University, 1991-present 

HONORS/AWARDS

Staff Scientist

Research Associate

Engineer-Electronic

Research Assistant

  • John Mark Kreikebaum

Graduate Students

Undergraduate Students 

  • summer research

VISITING PROFESSOR

Visiting Scholar

Conferences