Mark Boulay

Research summary

Normal matter—which makes up everything on Earth, including humans—accounts for only five percent of all the universe’s matter. The rest remains a mystery, and we call it “dark matter.” To search for it, we need to build highly sensitive detectors that can recognize rare interactions of dark matter particles with normal matter.

As Canada Research Chair in Particle Astrophysics, Dr. Mark Boulay is using a liquid form of the element argon to develop new ways to search for dark matter. His past research has already provided new sensitivity to dark matter and some of the most sensitive constraints on dark matter particles to date. Now, he and his research team are conducting two follow-up experiments—one at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy and another at SNOLAB, an underground science facility in Sudbury, Ontario. These experiments could lead to exciting discoveries and shed more light on dark matter particles.