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Professor Clare Burrage is a cosmologist at our School of Physics and Astronomy at the 糖心原创, working at the forefront of theoretical cosmology while championing greater participation of girls in physics.
Clare Burrage is a Professor of Physics at our School of Physics and Astronomy, recognised for her outstanding achievements in theoretical cosmology and her work engaging girls of all ages with physics. She was the and Lecture. In this Take 10, Clare shares her inspirations and career journey with us through ten questions.
The types of matter that form people, planets and stars make up only 5% of the content of our universe. The nature of the remaining 95% is the most fundamental open question in physics. We know that this missing matter and energy must be present, because we see its impact gravitationally on the motions of stars and galaxies. Current cosmological observations indicate that the unknown 95% has two components, dark matter, which forms large clumps around visible galaxies, and dark energy, which drives the acceleration of the expansion of the universe.
Despite much effort, we still have not detected dark energy or dark matter in any other way, but the next decade will bring new, high precision cosmological data.
Rapid developments in technology for space missions and laboratory experiments are underway, all of which have the potential to detect the constituents of the dark universe.
The goal of my research is to bring together all these different approaches to studying dark matter and dark energy, and to provide new ways to test explanations of what our universe is doing on the very largest scales, with observations we can make in the laboratory or in the solar system.
This allows us to optimise current searches, combine constraints from cosmological to sub-atomic scales, and guide the development of the next generation of surveys and experiments.
When I started my PhD in 2005, the common view was that dark energy was a problem that could only be studied with very large-scale surveys of the galaxies in our universe. I have shown that this is not the case, and that, if they are carefully designed, laboratory experiments have the power to detect or rule out explanations for the acceleration of the expansion of our universe.
This has led to new experiments at Imperial College London and University of California Berkeley, and a once popular explanation for dark energy now being on the verge of being ruled out.
Advancing our understanding of fundamental physics has always led to technological development and economic benefit.
A hundred years ago researchers were constructing the theory of quantum mechanics out of a desire to understand the fundamental principles of nature, but without that work we would not have semi-conductors, the foundation of all modern computing, MRI scanners and many other technologies. The same potential for future applications is true for current fundamental physics research, even though it is hard to predict precisely what it will be.
In the short term, discussing my work with the general public excites students to study physics further. We also provide the high-level training that translates to economically beneficial advances, for example some of my former PhD students now work in quantitative finance and semiconductor manufacturing.
I have been incredibly fortunate to have my work recognised through a number of national and international awards over the years. In 2025, I received the and presented my cross-disciplinary research at the
Prior to this, I was awarded the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists in the UK in 2023, for developing predictions that have helped guide entirely new experiments to probe the nature of dark energy, one of the biggest challenges in modern cosmology, within compact laboratory settings.
Earlier in my career, I received the Institute of Physics Maxwell Medal in 2015 for my research on dark energy, particularly in developing methods to test for fifth forces across a wide range of scales, from astrophysical observation to atom interfermotrey experiments.
I have demonstrated the opportunities that come from taking seriously the study of the dark universe beyond the simplest models, showing that laboratory experiments constrain dark energy models, and that the environment of dark matter experiments can affect their sensitivity.
Now is the time to embed this approach across all of the different ways in which we try to detect the dark universe and, in doing so, to bring together very different research communities in physics so that we have the best chance of understanding what our universe is made of.
This work really relies on having enough people to carry it out. There are so many opportunities to study dark energy and dark matter including new laboratory experiments, detection of gravitational waves, near Earth satellite missions, and large-scale cosmological surveys.
At the moment I’m limited by the amount of time I have to work on all of these opportunities, but funding to support PhD students and early career researchers to work together with me would rapidly accelerate our ability to determine the best ways to understand the nature of the dark components of our universe.
Physics in the UK remains a male dominated field. Although the proportion of women at all levels is increasing, progress is slow and starts from a low base. I have been lucky not to have been on the receiving end of overt discrimination, although I have experienced my fair share of stupid comments, and have always been aware of standing out and being different. For example, when everyone else in the room is male, they can be surprised to hear a female voice. If everyone looks startled when you speak, that doesn’t encourage you to make your voice heard!
You don’t have to work on the things that everyone else is working on. You still need to be able to explain why what you want to do is interesting and important, but it’s ok to do something a bit different to the rest of your research community – especially if that’s the work that excites you!
...it’s ok to do something a bit different to the rest of your research community – especially if that’s the work that excites you!