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Lecture: Probing the Universe with Gravitational Waves
November 14, 2018 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Join Honors Carolina for a lecture:
Probing the Universe with Gravitational Waves
Rainer Weiss, 2017 Nobel Laureate and Professor of Physics Emeritus at MIT
Wednesday, November 14 | 6:00pm
FedEx Global Education Center, Nelson Mandela Auditorium
The observations of gravitational waves from the mergers of compact binary sources 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.
Professor Weiss was awarded the 2017 Nobel Physics Prize for his “decisive contributions to the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) detector and the observation of gravitational waves.” He is also well-known for his research in cosmic microwave background radiation. He oversaw a scientific working group for NASA’s Cosmic Background Explorer satellite which, in 1989, precisely measured microwave radiation and its quantum fluctuations. In addition to the Nobel Prize, in recent years, Professor Weiss was awarded the Gruber Prize, the Einstein Prize, a Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, the Shaw Prize, the Kavli Prize, and the Princess of Asturias Award.