Congratulations to Ben Lehmann, PhD, Awarded 2025 Michelson Postdoctoral Prize

Ben Lehmann, PhD, Pappalardo Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

BEN LEHMANN, PhD, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been named the winner of this year’s MICHELSON POSTDOCTORAL PRIZE, and will be spending one week in residence during the week of April 13,  2026, on the Case Western Reserve University campus. This year marks the 27th annual MICHELSON POSTDOCTORAL PRIZE LECTURESHIP, awarded each year to a junior scholar active in any field of physics. As part of his residency, Dr. Lehmann is delivering two (2) technical lectures and a colloquium.  The lectureship also awards an honorarium of $3,000 plus travel expenses.

MPPL Lecture #1 (Monday, April 13, 12:45-2pm, Rockefeller 221)
Broadening Direct Searches for Light Dark Matter

MPPL Lecture #2 (Tuesday, April 14, 11:30am-12:45pm, Rockefeller 221)
Compact Objects as Dark Matter: Endgame

MPPL Physics Colloquium (Thursday, April 16, 4-5:30pm, Rockefeller 301)
Testing the Particle Dark Matter Paradigm

Dr. Lehmann’s research using a combination of techniques from particle physics, astrophysics, cosmology, and black hole physics is dedicated to understanding the nature and properties of dark matter. His ultimate goal is to understand dark matter in the same way that we understand ordinary matter, with predictive particle physics models.

Until recently, all signs pointed to a scenario in which dark matter is associated with new particle physics near the weak scale. But new experimental results have seriously challenged the most promising benchmark models, suggesting that the dark matter particle and its interactions could instead lie anywhere in an enormous parameter space.

Ben Lehmann’s work focuses on probing this vast space by connecting dark matter particle physics to novel experimental and observational tools, including condensed matter systems, cosmological surveys and gravitational waves.