Rainer Weiss

American physicist

Rainer "Rai" Weiss (/ws/; German: [vaɪs]; born September 29, 1932) is a German-born American physicist of partly Jewish descent (his father was Jewish).[1]

Rainer Weiss
Weiss in December 2006
Born (1932-09-29) September 29, 1932 (age 91)
EducationMassachusetts Institute of Technology (BS, MS, PhD)
Known forPioneering laser interferometric gravitational wave observation
AwardsEinstein 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
FieldsPhysics
Laser physics
Experimental gravitation
Cosmic background measurements
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
ThesisStark Effect and Hyperfine Structure of Hydrogen Fluoride (1962)
Doctoral advisorJerrold R. Zacharias
Doctoral studentsDirk 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 studentsBruce 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.[2][3][4]

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".[5][6][7][8]

References