Dr. Chiara Salemi

Biography

Chiara Salemi is an Assistant Professor in the Physics Department at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Faculty Scientist at the Physics Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Her research focuses on the search for axions, which are leading candidates for the universe's dark matter. Axions are elusive particles that weigh significantly less than known particles and interact very weakly with ordinary matter. Salemi's group is building experiments that operate at fractions of a degree above absolute zero, employing quantum sensors to detect the tiny signals that axions are expected to produce when interacting with magnetic fields. Before joining UC Berkeley, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s SLAC National Laboratory. Chiara received her Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she developed laboratory experiments aimed at searching for low-mass axion dark matter. Additionally, she holds a B.S. in physics and mathematics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Research Interests