STAG Public Lecture 2018 - Probing the Universe with Gravitational Waves, Rainer Weiss (Physics Nobel Laureate) Seminar
- Time:
- 14:30 - 15:30
- Date:
- 3 October 2018
- Venue:
- Turner Sims, University of Southampton, Highfield Campus, SO17 1BJ
For more information regarding this seminar, please email Barbara Seiter at STAG-Centre@southampton.ac.uk .
Event details
The observations of gravitational waves opens a new way to learn about the universe as well as to test General Relativity in the limit of strong gravitational interactions – the dynamics of massive bodies traveling at relativistic speeds in a highly curved space-time. The lecture will describe some of the difficult history of gravitational waves proposed about 100 years ago. The concepts used in the instruments and the methods for data analysis that enable the measurement of gravitational wave strains of 10-21 and smaller will be presented. The results derived from the measurement, their relation to the Einstein equations and the astrophysical implications will also be discussed. The talk will end with a vision for the future of gravitational wave astronomy.
The STAG Research Centre brings together world-leading academics from three research groups – Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Gravitation – to explore issues of fundamental physics and astronomy.
Find out more about the STAG research centre: www.southampton.ac.uk/stag
Speaker information
Professor Rainer Weiss, MIT Department of Physics. Rainer Weiss (NAS) is a Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Previously Dr Weiss served as an assistant physics professor at Tufts University and has been an adjunct professor at Louisiana State University since 2001. Dr Weiss is known for his pioneering measurements of the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation, his inventions of the monolithic silicon bolometer and the laser interferometer gravitational wave detector and his roles as a co-founder and an intellectual leader of both the COBE (microwave background) Project and the LIGO (gravitational-wave detection) Project. He has received numerous scientific and group achievement awards from NASA, an MIT excellence in teaching award, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the National Space Club Science Award, the Medaille de l’ADION Observatoire de Nice, the Gruber Cosmology Prize, and the Einstein Prize of the American Physical Society. Dr Weiss is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and he is a member of the American Astronomical Society, the New York Academy of Sciences, and Sigma Xi. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. in physics from MIT. Dr Weiss is a member of the NAS and has served on nine NRC committees from 1986 to 2007 including the Committee on NASA Astrophysics Performance Assessment; the Panel on Particle, Nuclear, and Gravitational-wave Astrophysics; and the Task Group on Space Astronomy and Astrophysics.