Rainer weiss biography

Primary areas of research: Atomic clocks, Cosmic background radiation measurements, Gravitational wave detection. Most of my research has been dedicated to establishing an observational and experimental basis for relativistic gravitation.

He is best known for inventing the laser interferometric technique which is the basic operation of LIGO. Weiss has helped realize a number of challenging experimental tests of fundamental physics. He is a member of the Fermilab Holometer experiment, which uses a 40m laser interferometer to measure properties of space and time at quantum scale and provide Planck-precision tests of quantum holographic fluctuation. His mother, an actress, was Christian. The family fled first to Prague , but Germany's occupation of Czechoslovakia after the Munich Agreement caused them to flee again; the philanthropic Stix family of St. Louis helped them obtain visas to enter the United States.

Rainer weiss biography

Writing this at 73 and having shed the august responsibilities of a full fledged faculty, it is natural to be retrospective rather than to look at prospects. Currently working on the LIGO project, a joint Caltech and MIT effort, to observe gravitational waves and use them to study gravitation and astrophysics. My role now is to be the equivalent of a grad student. Very much enjoy this. Over the years have worked on cosmological studies with Robert Dicke and David Wilkinson at Princeton. If you are really interested, you can read the standard stuff. Previously Dr. Weiss served as an assistant physics professor at Tufts University and has been an adjunct professor at Louisiana State University since 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 received his B. Methods A, , Research Areas.

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I was born in Berlin, Germany on September 29, My father was a neurologist who had rebelled against his family of well-off intellectual German jews with connections to the Rathenau family. He had become an idealistic communist. My mother was a Protestant who had rebelled against her family by becoming an actress. In the family emigrated to Prague, Czechoslovakia to escape the Nazis. In my sister Sybille was born.

Thank you for registering with Physics World If you'd like to change your details at any time, please visit My account. Now aged 90 he talks to Sidney Perkowitz about his life and work, from the unexpected sources for scientific inspiration to the challenges of large-scale experiments. Down-to-earth, unassuming, and keen to discuss his research, physicist Rainer Weiss is remarkably easy to talk to. Despite portending their existence, Einstein himself doubted that these waves would ever be observable because they are extremely weak. It took decades of effort from Weiss, his Nobel colleagues and many others, and the discovery represented a pinnacle in physics that also ushered in a new era in astronomy. Since the advent of observational astronomy, we had been scanning the universe mostly by observing first visible light, then a broad spectrum of electromagnetic waves.

Rainer weiss biography

He is best known for inventing the laser interferometric technique which is the basic operation of LIGO. Weiss has helped realize a number of challenging experimental tests of fundamental physics. He is a member of the Fermilab Holometer experiment, which uses a 40m laser interferometer to measure properties of space and time at quantum scale and provide Planck-precision tests of quantum holographic fluctuation. His mother, an actress, was Christian. The family fled first to Prague , but Germany's occupation of Czechoslovakia after the Munich Agreement caused them to flee again; the philanthropic Stix family of St. Louis helped them obtain visas to enter the United States. He studied at MIT , dropped out during his junior year, [14] but eventually returned to receive his S.

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The Astronomical Journal Publish your original astronomical research. I got orders to build similar systems for them, and soon I had more orders than I could handle. Quantum Grav. The more numerous fast ones scatter the slow ones out of the beam. Wilson O. Related jobs. The aim of the experiment was to measure the spectrum of scalar gravitational radiation, but they found that the sensitivity of their quartz gravimeter was severely limited due to geophysical noise. After LIGO began operations in , it achieved the predicted sensitivity, but for nine years, no gravitational waves were detected. Since all measurements are made at the space—time location of the laser, the general relativity calculation becomes straightforward — in fact, Weiss assigned it as a class problem. I tried to understand the Weber experiments, but got stuck in understanding the interaction of the gravitational wave with the bar. It was a great time for someone with those interests. Retrieved May 31,

After serving as an assistant professor of physics at Tufts University and then a research associate at Princeton University, he returned to MIT and has been there ever since. Weiss has contributed to a variety of scientific fields, including atomic physics, laser physics and astronomy.

I could also not admit to the Department that I knew very little of the formal theory. Read previous Environment and energy Feature Space-based solar power: could beaming sunlight back to Earth meet our energy needs? Rainer Weiss. After consulting with others, Kip suggested this to the Caltech administration and engaged Ron Drever and Stan Whitcomb to start a group at Caltech with a significant internal investment. The idea took a while to be accepted, reviewers were sceptical ranging from too hard to do to impossible since the properties of the light were said to be also affected by the gravitational wave in such a manner as to cancel the measurement. So, Rai came back and started a research group in cosmology and gravitation. It was a great time for someone with those interests. She was a music major at Northwestern University. World Scientific. Once Rainer was born, Gertrude travelled with her new baby to join Frederick in Czechoslovakia, where the couple had another child, Sybille, in Sign in to Access more than 20 years of online content Manage which e-mail newsletters you want to receive Read about the big breakthroughs and innovations across 13 scientific topics Explore the key issues and trends within the global scientific community. Down-to-earth, unassuming, and keen to discuss his research, physicist Rainer Weiss is remarkably easy to talk to.