Meet the Researcher: Giorgio Busoni
As I progressed in my studies, I came to appreciate both the beauty and the complexity of this field, which requires a strong understanding across multiple areas of physics.
In a career that has crossed multiple national and international borders, Giorgio Busoni has reaped the professional and personal benefits of his career in physics.
The Adelaide University theoretical physicist began his studies in Italy, before undertaking a position at the University of Melbourne, before moving in Germany for a role at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg.
Giorgio joined the Dark Matter Centre as a research fellow at the Australian National University node.
In his role as a senior postdoctoral researcher in Adelaide, his research is just as diverse, across several interconnected areas of dark matter physics, ranging from astrophysical probes to laboratory experiments and more formal theoretical developments.
One major focus of his work is the study of dark matter capture in stars, a topic in which he has developed strong international expertise. If dark matter has non-gravitational interactions, stars moving through the galaxy may capture dark matter particles, which then accumulate in their interiors and affect their properties.
While this idea was originally explored in the context of the Sun, his recent work has extended it to more extreme stellar environments such as neutron stars, white dwarfs, and the first generation of stars (Population III stars). These objects act as powerful laboratories for dark matter. For example, neutron stars are so dense that a teaspoon of their material would weigh billions of tonnes. Their extreme density makes them highly efficient at capturing dark matter. The accumulated dark matter could heat the star, preventing it from cooling as expected, or in more extreme cases even trigger its collapse into a black hole.
White dwarfs, the remnants of Sun-like stars, offer complementary probes: dark matter could modify their luminosity or internal oscillations, which can be measured with high precision. Similarly, Population III stars provide insight into dark matter in the early universe.
Other major components of Giorgio’s research are dark matter direct detection, including the SABRE South experiment, and exploring how quantum information principles may give rise to symmetries that stabilise particles such as dark matter.
Giorgio’s interest in maths and numbers extends back to his childhood; his mother remembers a skiing holiday when the instructor had been surprised to hear a six-year-old Giorgio counting everything he saw.
That interest developed into a passion for physics in middle school in Italy, encouraged by his grandmother, who was a high school chemistry teacher.
He loved competing in maths and physics competitions and his success led him to compete in the Italian national team in the International Physics Olympiad in Singapore in 2006.
This and other competitions exposed him to physics at an international level and fuelled his interest in the subject.
“As I progressed in my studies, I came to appreciate both the beauty and the complexity of this field, which requires a strong understanding across multiple areas of physics. During my PhD, I decided to focus specifically on dark matter,” he said.
“What I find particularly inspiring is the realization that we currently understand only about 5% of the universe’s total content. The remaining 95% consists of dark matter (approximately 27%) and dark energy (about 68%).While dark energy constitutes the larger fraction, dark matter appears more accessible to experimental detection and theoretical understanding in the near future.
“Since physics—even theoretical physics—is ultimately grounded in experimental verification, this made dark matter a natural and compelling focus for my research.”
Giorgio says that collaboration with national and international scientists has played a significant role in his career.
“Collaboration has been central to both my professional and personal development. It has given me the opportunity to live and work in different countries, including Italy, Australia, and Germany, and to experience diverse cultures and environments,” he said.
“From a research perspective, working with a wide range of collaborators has allowed me to expand my expertise beyond my original training, particularly into astroparticle physics and related areas. It has also exposed me to different research cultures and ways of approaching problems.
“On a personal level, these experiences have been extremely enriching and have allowed me to build lasting relationships within the international scientific community.”
In 2026, Giorgio aims to develop several research directions that build on his current work while expanding into emerging areas, such as the study of neutron stars and collider searches.