University of Texas Arlington

ARLINGTON - Amir Farbin, an assistant professor in physics at The University of Texas at Arlington, has received an Early Career Research Award from the Department of Energy. The award, announced Jan. 14, is one of only three granted to university researchers working with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in CERN, Switzerland.

Amir Farbin

A total of 69 scientists in the United States received the five-year grants, which provide at least $150,000 each year in research support.

Farbin will research dark matter and dark energy using the ATLAS detector at the LHC.

"One of the biggest mysteries about the universe is that, for decades, conclusive evidence has shown that the familiar matter - the building blocks of stars, planets and living organisms - constitutes just a tiny fraction of all energy/mass in existence," Farbin said. "We now think that the universe is dominated by two mysterious phenomena known as dark matter and dark energy."

Despite that the phenomena have never been captured or created in a laboratory, Farbin said they undeniably exert influence on large structures, such as galaxies. Yet little is known about dark matter and energy, so Farbin proposed what will likely be the first dark-matter search at the LHC.

Farbin's work is representative of the research under way at UT Arlington, an institution of 28,000 students on its way to becoming a nationally recognized, top-tier research university.

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The University of Texas at Arlington is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer.