Rouven Essig

I am a Professor of Physics at the C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP) at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, USA.

I am a theoretical particle physicist whose research focuses on the search for dark matter and other new particles beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. My work spans various frontiers in physics, including particle and astroparticle physics, cosmology, and condensed matter physics. I study the fundamental building blocks of matter (particles) and their interactions (forces), and how they shape our Universe.

I have helped pioneer several novel detection concepts to probe dark matter below the proton mass and have been a leader in establishing this as a new research direction, which has attracted significant theoretical and experimental efforts worldwide. Although primarily a theorist, I am co-leading and participating in several experiments searching for dark matter and new forces.

I was born and grew up in South Africa. I received my undergraduate education at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, earning B.Sc. (Hons.) degrees in both Physics (2001) and Mathematics (2002). I completed my Ph.D. in Physics from Rutgers University in 2008. Before joining Stony Brook University in 2011, I was a Research Associate at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University from 2008 to 2011.

I am a Fellow of the American Physical Society (2020) and have received numerous awards including the New Horizons in Physics Prize (2021), a Simons Investigator Award (2019), the American Physical Society's Henry Primakoff Award for Early-Career Particle Physics (2015), a Sloan Fellowship (2013), and the DOE Early Career Award (2012).

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My research focuses on searching for dark matter and other new particles beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, using theoretical and experimental tools that span various frontiers: theory, cosmic, energy, and intensity.

Dark matter comprises approximately 85% of the matter in our universe, yet its identity remains one of the greatest mysteries in physics. Even its most basic properties—such as how much it weighs and how it interacts with known matter—remain unknown. My work involves conceiving new ideas for what constitutes dark matter and developing new ideas for detecting dark matter particles and any unknown forces using laboratory, cosmological, and astrophysical data.

I collaborate with a wide range of scientists, including particle and astroparticle theorists and experimentalists, astronomers, condensed matter theorists, AMO physicists, quantum information scientists, instrumentalists, theoretical cosmologists, and N-body dark matter simulators. This interdisciplinary approach enables comprehensive exploration of fundamental questions in particle physics.

Research Areas

Research Papers

An up-to-date publication list can be found on iNSPIRE or ADS.

Prospective PhD/MA students: Information about the Stony Brook Physics and Astronomy PhD program and how to apply can be found here. If you are already a student in the program and would like to learn more about my research and available positions, please contact me.

Postdoctoral Mentorship: In addition to advising and mentoring students, I have worked with and/or helped mentor numerous postdocs at the Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics who currently hold faculty positions. These include Kim Berghaus, David Curtin, Peizhi Du, Oren Slone, Kohsaku Tobioka, Mauro Valli, and Tien-Tien Yu.

Although a theorist, I am participating, or have participated, as a co-spokesperson and/or member in several experiments that were motivated at least in part by my theoretical research. These experiments focus on direct searches for dark matter and new forces:

SENSEI (Co-Spokesperson) — Sub-Electron Noise Skipper CCD Experimental Instrument, a dark matter direct-detection experiment with unprecedented sensitivity to sub-GeV dark matter particles.

APEX (Co-Spokesperson) — The A' Experiment at Jefferson Lab, searching for dark photons in the mass range from 65 MeV to 550 MeV.

Oscura, DarkNESS, HPS (Collaboration Member) — Additional experimental efforts searching for sub-GeV dark matter and new forces.