Rainer Weiss: American physicist
Rainer Rai Weiss (/waɪs/; German: ; born September 29, 1932) is a German-born American physicist of partly Jewish descent (his father was Jewish).
Rainer Weiss | |
|---|---|
 Weiss in December 2006 | |
| Born | September 29, 1932 |
| Education | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS, MS, PhD) |
| Known for | Pioneering laser interferometric gravitational wave observation |
| Awards | Einstein Prize (2007) Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2016) Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2016) Shaw Prize (2016) Kavli Prize (2016) Harvey Prize (2016) Princess of Asturias Award (2017) Nobel Prize in Physics (2017) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics Laser physics Experimental gravitation Cosmic background measurements |
| Institutions | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Thesis | Stark Effect and Hyperfine Structure of Hydrogen Fluoride (1962) |
| Doctoral advisor | Jerrold R. Zacharias |
| Doctoral students | Dirk Muehlner, David Owens, Patricia Downey , Daniel Dewey, Jeffrey Livas, Nelson Christensen, Peter Fritschel, Michelle Stephens, Joseph Kovalik, Joseph Giaime, Partha Saha, Nergis Mavalvala, Brett Bochner, Brian Lantz, Julien Sylvestre, Ryan Lawrence, Rana Adhikari |
| Other notable students | Bruce Allen |
Works
He is known for his works in gravitational physics and astrophysics. He is a professor of physics emeritus at MIT. He is best known for inventing the laser interferometric technique which is the basic operation of LIGO.
Weiss was Chair of the COBE Science Working Group.
In 2017, Weiss was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Kip Thorne and Barry Barish, "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves".
References
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