dr rupak mahapatra assistant professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been recognized with a 2010 united states department of energy early career research award for his achievements and future potential in high-energy particle physics research mahapatra who studies dark matter and specifically detection of the weakly interacting massive particles (wimps) it is believed to consist of is among 69 early career scientists nationwide and one of four from texas selected to receive a total of $85 million in funding under the american recovery and reinvestment act (arra) the five-year research grants announced last week by doe secretary of energy steven chu are part of the does new early career research program designed to strengthen the nations scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the early years of their careers a critical stage with great impact on a scientists later more formative work this investment reflects the administrations strong commitment to creating jobs and new industries through scientific innovation chu said strong support of scientists in the early career years is crucial to renewing americas scientific workforce and ensuring us leadership in discovery and innovation for many years to come eligible researchers must be untenured tenure-track assistant professors at us academic institutions or full-time employees at doe national laboratories with a phd earned within the past 10 years their research topics also must fall within the scope of the departments office of sciences six major program offices: advanced scientific computing research; basic energy sciences; biological and environmental research; fusion energy sciences; high-energy physics or nuclear physics special consideration was given to projects that directly promote the objectives of the arra job creation preservation and economic recovery mahapatra was awarded a total of $750 000 over five years by the does office of high-energy physics for his proposal ton scale germanium: beyond zeptobarn wimp cross-section his proposal was selected from a pool of about 1 750 university- and national laboratory-based applicants through peer review by outside scientific experts its the biggest news that can come for an early-career scientist mahapatra says its unbelievably good news and im really excited to have received this award the award is a momentous step forward for mahapatra already widely regarded as an expert in high-energy particle physics and dark matter a mysterious substance thought to comprise about one-fifth of the energy and 85 percent of all matter in the universe he came to texas a&m in december 2008 after receiving his phd from the university of minnesota (2000) and completing postdoctoral work at the university of california santa barbara during the past decade he has made several notable contributions to dark-matter investigation including designing and building particle detectors for the cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) experiment for which he serves as a principal investigator at texas a&m conducted a half-mile underground in a mine in soudan minn and managed by the does fermi national accelerator laboratory the cdms experiment uses advanced detector technology and analysis to enable cryogenically cooled germanium and silicon targets to search for the rare recoil of dark matter particles thanks to the additional financial support of his doe grant mahapatra expects texas a&m to take on a lead role in dark matter research as well as the cdms experiments next phase dubbed the supercdms experiment and involving larger more advanced detectors currently being developed by his team my proposal was to significantly improve the current detector technology as established by stanford university and to fabricate the next-generation detectors he explains my plan in the next five years is to eventually move the dark matter effort from its main base at stanford university to texas a&m and to have a&m become the centerpiece for building particle detectors this award really provides the boost we need to do that optimistic about the future of uncovering dark matter what he describes as one of physics most important quests mahapatra says he is grateful for the opportunity to conduct his research at texas a&m i want to thank the college of science for all of the support as well george mitchell for his contributions to the department of physics and astronomy which will really move us ahead in the next few years mahapatra adds this is what made it possible for [me to win] this award find more information on the us department of energy early career research program and a complete list of award winners learn more about mahapatras research and texas a&ms involvement in the cdms experiment -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 845-8624 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu