Dark matter stands as one of the biggest puzzles in modern physics. Astronomical and cosmological observations indicate that about 85% of the matter in the Universe is “dark”; yet despite decades of experimental efforts, its nature remains unknown. While many searches targeted weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), recent advances in theoretical models motivated new candidates such as light dark matter. The meV-GeV mass range consists of a rich and largely unexplored region of parameter space. Emerging technologies have enabled small- and medium-scale experiments to explore these theoretical models. Skipper-CCDs are silicon detectors that allow multiple non-destructive measurements of the same signal to achieve deep sub-electron resolution. This capability enables sensitivity to energy deposits as small as a few eV; the kind of signal expected from light dark matter interacting with electrons in silicon. SENSEI is the first experiment to implement Skipper-CCDs for dark matter detection and has achieved world-leading sensitivity to different models. In this talk, I will briefly review the dark matter puzzle, the candidates, and experimental approaches to search for them. I will then give an overview of the SENSEI experiment and its current status following the successful commissioning of its second generation of science-grade sensors at SNOLAB. Finally, I will discuss future prospects for rare-event searches with Skipper-CCDs and the emerging technologies that could answer several questions in astronomy, particle physics, and quantum imaging.
I earned my degree in Physics from the University of Buenos Aires and completed a Ph.D. at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, where I contributed to the Pierre Auger Observatory, the world's largest cosmic ray detector. I then joined efforts at Fermilab to build multi-kilogram Skipper-CCD detectors to reveal the nature of dark matter. My current research focuses on developing and implementing ultra-low-noise detectors to answer fundamental questions in particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. I lead several efforts to advance detector technologies and improve sensitivity in light dark matter experiments such as SENSEI and OSCURA, as well as in coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering at nuclear reactors. As a new Assistant Professor at the Université de Montréal, I am building a new laboratory dedicated to advanced semiconductor detectors and their applications to rare-event searches, astronomy, and quantum imaging. My goal is to translate cutting-edge technology into scientific instrumentation through interdisciplinary collaboration to answer some of physics' most fundamental questions.