Rainer Weiss

Rainer Weiss
Rainer Weiss
	; Weiss in June 2018;
Born	; (1932-09-29) September 29, 1932 (age 85); Berlin, Germany;
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	; Nergis Mavalvala;
Other notable students	; Bruce Allen;
Influences	; Robert H. Dicke;
	;

Rainer Weiss during Nobel Prize press conference in Stockholm, December 2017

Rainer "Rai" Weiss (/waɪs/; German: [vaɪs]; born September 29, 1932) is an American physicist, known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. He is a professor of physics emeritus at MIT and an adjunct professor at LSU. He is best known for inventing the laser interferometric technique which is the basic operation of LIGO. He was Chair of the COBE Science Working Group.^[1]^[2]^[3]

He is a member of 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.^[4]^[5]

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".^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]

Early life and education[edit]

Rainer Weiss was born in Berlin, Germany, the son of Gertrude Loesner and Frederick A. Weiss.^[10]^[11] His father, a physician, neurologist, and psychoanalyst, was forced out of Germany by Nazis because he was Jewish and an active member of the Communist Party. His mother, a Christian, was an actress.^[12] The family fled first to Prague, but Germany's occupation of Czechoslovakia after the 1938 Munich Agreement caused them to flee; the philanthropic Stix family of St. Louis enabled them to obtain visas to enter the United States.^[13] Weiss spent his youth in New York City, where he attended Columbia Grammar School. He studied at MIT and after dropping out in his junior year^[14] returned to receive his S.B. degree in 1955 and Ph.D. degree in 1962 from Jerrold Zacharias. He taught at Tufts University in 1960–62, was a postdoctoral scholar at Princeton University from 1962 to 1964, then joined the faculty at MIT in 1964.^[10]

Achievements[edit]

Weiss brought two fields of fundamental physics research from birth to maturity: characterization of the cosmic background radiation,^[3] and interferometric gravitational wave observation.

He made pioneering measurements of the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation, and then was co-founder and science advisor of the NASA COBE (microwave background) satellite.^[1] Weiss also invented the interferometric gravitational wave detector, and co-founded the NSF LIGO (gravitational-wave detection) project.^[15] Both of these efforts couple challenges in instrument science with physics important to the understanding of the Universe.^[16]

In February 2016, he was one of the four scientists of LIGO/Virgo collaboration presenting at the press conference for the announcement that the first direct gravitational wave observation had been made in September 2015.^[17]^[18]^[19]^[20]^[a]

Honors and awards[edit]

Rainer Weiss has been recognized by numerous awards including:

In 2006, with John C. Mather, he and the COBE team received the Gruber Prize in Cosmology.^[2]

In 2007, with Ronald Drever, he was awarded the Einstein Prize for this work.^[21]

For the achievement of gravitational waves detection, in 2016 and 2017 he received:

The Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics,^[22]

Gruber Prize in Cosmology,^[23]

Shaw Prize,^[24]

Kavli Prize in Astrophysics^[25]

The Harvey Prize together with Kip Thorne and Ronald Drever.^[26]

The Smithsonian magazine's American Ingenuity Award in the Physical Science category, with Kip Thorne and Barry Barish.^[27]

The Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics, 2017.^[28]

Princess of Asturias Award (2017) (jointly with Kip Thorne and Barry Barish).^[29]

The Nobel Prize in Physics (2017) (jointly with Kip Thorne and Barry Barish)^[6]

Fellowship of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters^[30]

In 2018, he was awarded the American Astronomical Society's Joseph Weber Award for Astronomical Instrumentation "for his invention of the interferometric gravitational-wave detector, which led to the first detection of long-predicted gravitational waves."^[31]

Selected publications[edit]

R. Weiss, H.H. Stroke, V. Jaccarino and D.S. Edmonds (1957). "Magnetic Moments and Hyperfine Structure Anomalies of Cs₁₃₃, Cs₁₃₅ and Cs₁₃₇". Phys. Rev. 105 (2): 590–603. Bibcode:1957PhRv..105..590S. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.105.590. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)

R. Weiss (1961). "Molecular Beam Electron Bombardment Detector". Rev. Sci. Instrum. 32 (4): 397–401. Bibcode:1961RScI...32..397W. doi:10.1063/1.1717386.

R. Weiss & L. Grodzins (1962). "A Search for a Frequency Shift of 14.4 keV Photons on Traversing Radiation Fields". Physics Letters. 1 (8): 342. Bibcode:1962PhL.....1..342W. doi:10.1016/0031-9163(62)90420-1.

Weiss, Rainer (1963). "Stark Effect and Hyperfine Structure of Hydrogen Fluoride". Phys. Rev. 131 (2): 659–665. Bibcode:1963PhRv..131..659W. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.131.659.

R. Weiss & B. Block (1965). "A Gravimeter to Monitor the _OS_O Dilational Model of the Earth". J. Geophys. Res. 70 (22): 5615. Bibcode:1965JGR....70.5615W. doi:10.1029/JZ070i022p05615.

R. Weiss & G. Blum (1967). "Experimental Test of the Freundlich Red-Shift Hypothesis". Phys. Rev. 155 (5): 1412. Bibcode:1967PhRv..155.1412B. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.155.1412.

R. Weiss (1967). "Electric and Magnetic Field Probes". Am. J. Phys. 35 (11): 1047–1048. Bibcode:1967AmJPh..35.1047W. doi:10.1119/1.1973723.

R.Weiss and S. Ezekiel (1968). "Laser-Induced Fluorescence in a Molecular Beam of Iodine". Phys. Rev. Lett. 20 (3): 91–93. Bibcode:1968PhRvL..20...91E. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.20.91.

R. Weiss & D. Muehlner (1970). "A Measurement of the Isotropic Background Radiation in the Far Infrared". Phys. Rev. Lett. 24 (13): 742. Bibcode:1970PhRvL..24..742M. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.24.742.

R. Weiss (1972). "Electromagnetically Coupled Broadband Gravitational Antenna" (PDF). Quarterly Progress Report, Research Laboratory of Electronics, MIT. 105: 54.

R. Weiss & D. Muehlner (1973). "Balloon Measurements of the Far Infrared Background Radiation". Phys. Rev. D. 7 (2): 326. Bibcode:1973PhRvD...7..326M. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.7.326.

R. Weiss & D. Muehlner (1973). "Further Measurements of the Submillimeter Background at Balloon Altitude". Phys. Rev. Lett. 30 (16): 757. Bibcode:1973PhRvL..30..757M. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.30.757.

R. Weiss & D.K. Owens (1974). "Measurements of the Phase Fluctuations on a He-Ne Zeeman Laser". Rev. Sci. Instrum. 45 (9): 1060. Bibcode:1974RScI...45.1060O. doi:10.1063/1.1686809.

R. Weiss, D.K. Owens & D. Muehlner (1979). "A Large Beam Sky Survey at Millimeter and Submillimeter Wavelengths Made from Balloon Altitudes". Astrophysical Journal. 231: 702. Bibcode:1979ApJ...231..702O. doi:10.1086/157235.

R. Weiss, P.M. Downey, F.J. Bachner, J.P. Donnelly, W.T. Lindley, R.W. Mountain and D.J. Silversmith (1980). "Monolithic Silicon Bolometers". Journal of Infrared and Millimeter Waves. 1. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)

R. Weiss (1980). "Measurements of the Cosmic Background Radiation". Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics. 18: 489–535. Bibcode:1980ARA&A..18..489W. doi:10.1146/annurev.aa.18.090180.002421.

R. Weiss (1980). "The COBE Project". Physica Scripta. 21 (5): 670. Bibcode:1980PhyS...21..670W. doi:10.1088/0031-8949/21/5/016.

R. Weiss, S.S. Meyer & A.D. Jeffries (1983). "A Search for the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect at Millimeter Wavelengths". Astrophys. J. Lett. 271: L1. Bibcode:1983ApJ...271L...1M. doi:10.1086/184080.

R. Weiss, M. Halpern, R. Benford, S. Meyer and D. Muehlner (1988). "Measurements of the Anisotropy of the Cosmic Background Radiation and Diffuse Galactic Emission at Millimeter and Submillimeter Wavelengths". Astrophys. J. 332: 596. Bibcode:1988ApJ...332..596H. doi:10.1086/166679. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)

R. Weiss, J.C. Mather, E.S. Cheng, R.E. Eplee Jr., R.B. Isaacman, S.S. Meyer, R.A. Shafer, E.L. Wright, C.L. Bennett, N.W. Boggess, E. Dwek, S. Gulkis, M.G. Hauser, M. Janssen, T. Kelsall, P.M. Lubin, S.H. Moseley Jr., T.L. Murdock, R.F. Silverberg, G.F. Smoot and D.T. Wilkinson (1990). "A Preliminary Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Spectrum by the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) Satellite". Astrophys. J. 354: L37. Bibcode:1990ApJ...354L..37M. doi:10.1086/185717. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)

R. Weiss, G. Smoot, C. Bennett, R. Weber, J. Maruschak, R. Ratliff, M. Janssen, J. Chitwood, L. Hilliard, M. Lecha, R. Mills, R. Patschke, C. Richards, C. Backus, J. Mather, M. Hauser, D. Wilkenson, S. Gulkis, N. Boggess, E. Cheng, T. Kelsall, P. Lubin, S. Meyer, H. Moseley, T. Murdock, R. Shafer, R. Silverberg and E. Wright (1990). "COBE Differential Microwave Radiometers: Instrument Design and Implementation". Astrophys. J. 360: 685. Bibcode:1990ApJ...360..685S. doi:10.1086/169154. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)

R. Weiss (1990). "Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors". In N. Ashby; D. Bartlett; W. Wyss. Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation. Cambridge University Press. p. 331.

R. Weiss, D. Shoemaker, P. Fritschel, J. Glaime and N. Christensen (1991). "Prototype Michelson Interferometer with Fabry-Perot Cavities". Applied Optics. 30 (22): 3133–8. Bibcode:1991ApOpt..30.3133S. doi:10.1364/AO.30.003133. PMID 20706365. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)

Notes[edit]

^ Other physicists presenting were Gabriela González, David Reitze, Kip Thorne, and France A. Córdova from the NSF.

References[edit]

^ ^a^b Lars Brink (June 2, 2014). Nobel Lectures in Physics (2006–2010). World Scientific. pp. 25–. ISBN 978-981-4612-70-8.

^ ^a^b "NASA and COBE Scientists Win Top Cosmology Prize". NASA. 2006. Retrieved February 22, 2016.

^ ^a^b Weiss, Rainer (1980). "Measurements of the Cosmic Background Radiation". Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 18: 489–535. Bibcode:1980ARA&A..18..489W. doi:10.1146/annurev.aa.18.090180.002421.

^ Emily Tapp (6 October 2017). "Why we built the Holometer". IOP, Classical and Quantum Gravity journal. Retrieved 22 October 2017.

^ Aaron Chou; et al. (2017). "The Holometer: an instrument to probe Planckian quantum geometry". Class. Quantum Grav. 34 (6): 065005. arXiv:1611.08265 . Bibcode:2017CQGra..34f5005C. doi:10.1088/1361-6382/aa5e5c.

^ ^a^b "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017". The Nobel Foundation. October 3, 2017. Retrieved October 3, 2017.

^ Rincon, Paul; Amos, Jonathan (October 3, 2017). "Einstein's waves win Nobel Prize". BBC News. Retrieved October 3, 2017.

^ Overbye, Dennis (October 3, 2017). "2017 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to LIGO Black Hole Researchers". The New York Times. Retrieved October 3, 2017.

^ Kaiser, David (October 3, 2017). "Learning from Gravitational Waves". The New York Times. Retrieved October 3, 2017.

^ ^a^b Weiss CV at mit.edu

^ "MIT physicist Rainer Weiss shares Nobel Prize in physics". MIT News. October 3, 2017.

^ "Rainer Weiss Biography" (PDF). kavliprize.org. Retrieved 7 July 2018.

^ Shirley K. Cohen (10 May 2000). "Interview with Rainer Weiss" (PDF). Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology. Retrieved 22 October 2017.

^ Meet the College Dropout who Invented the Gravitational Wave Detector Adrian Cho Science 4 August 2016

^ Mervis, Jeffrey. "Got gravitational waves? Thank NSF's approach to building big facilities". Science Magazine. ISSN 1095-9203. Retrieved 2017-11-14.

^ David Shoemaker (2012). "The Evolution of Advanced LIGO" (PDF). LIGO Magazine (1).

^ Twilley, Nicola. "Gravitational Waves Exist: The Inside Story of How Scientists Finally Found Them". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2016-02-11.

^ Abbott, B.P.; et al. (2016). "Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger". Phys. Rev. Lett. 116 (6): 061102. arXiv:1602.03837 . Bibcode:2016PhRvL.116f1102A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102. PMID 26918975.

^ Naeye, Robert (February 11, 2016). "Gravitational Wave Detection Heralds New Era of Science". Sky and Telescope. Retrieved February 11, 2016.

^ Castelvecchi, Davide; Witze, Alexandra (February 11, 2016). "Einstein's gravitational waves found at last". Nature News. doi:10.1038/nature.2016.19361. Retrieved February 11, 2016.

^ "Prize Recipient". aps.org.

^ "Breakthrough Prize – Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics Awarded For Detection of Gravitational Waves 100 Years After Albert Einstein Predicted Their Existence". breakthroughprize.org. San Francisco. May 2, 2016. Retrieved 2017-10-03.

^ "2016 Gruber Cosmology Prize Press Release". gruber.yale.edu. The Gruber Foundation. May 4, 2016. Retrieved 2017-10-03.

^ Shaw Prize 2016

^ Kavli Prize 2016

^ Harvey Prize 2016

^ "Meet the Team of Scientists Who Discovered Gravitational Waves". Smithsonian Magazine.

^ "The Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics". Retrieved March 17, 2017.

^ Princess of Asturias Award 2017

^ "Group 2: Astronomy, Physics and Geophysics". Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.

^ "Joseph Weber Award for Astronomical Instrumentation". American Astronomical Society.

External links[edit]

Rainer Weiss' website at MIT

LIGO Group at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research

Rainer Weiss at the Mathematics Genealogy Project

Q&A: Rainer Weiss on LIGO’s origins at news.mit.edu

"UW Frontiers of Physics Lecture: Dr. Rainer Weiss, Fall 2016, recorded 25 Oct., U. Washington College of Arts & Sciences". YouTube. November 10, 2016.

[21] Other physicists presenting were Gabriela González, David Reitze, Kip Thorne, and France A. Córdova from the NSF.

[Brink2014-1] Lars Brink (June 2, 2014). Nobel Lectures in Physics (2006–2010). World Scientific. pp. 25–. ISBN 978-981-4612-70-8.

[NASA-2] "NASA and COBE Scientists Win Top Cosmology Prize". NASA. 2006. Retrieved February 22, 2016.

[ann-3] Weiss, Rainer (1980). "Measurements of the Cosmic Background Radiation". Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 18: 489–535. Bibcode:1980ARA&A..18..489W. doi:10.1146/annurev.aa.18.090180.002421.

[4] Emily Tapp (6 October 2017). "Why we built the Holometer". IOP, Classical and Quantum Gravity journal. Retrieved 22 October 2017.

[5] Aaron Chou; et al. (2017). "The Holometer: an instrument to probe Planckian quantum geometry". Class. Quantum Grav. 34 (6): 065005. arXiv:1611.08265 . Bibcode:2017CQGra..34f5005C. doi:10.1088/1361-6382/aa5e5c.

[Nobel-6] "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017". The Nobel Foundation. October 3, 2017. Retrieved October 3, 2017.

[BBC-20171003-7] Rincon, Paul; Amos, Jonathan (October 3, 2017). "Einstein's waves win Nobel Prize". BBC News. Retrieved October 3, 2017.

[NYT-20171003-8] Overbye, Dennis (October 3, 2017). "2017 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to LIGO Black Hole Researchers". The New York Times. Retrieved October 3, 2017.

[NYT-20171003dk-9] Kaiser, David (October 3, 2017). "Learning from Gravitational Waves". The New York Times. Retrieved October 3, 2017.

[CV-10] Weiss CV at mit.edu

[11] "MIT physicist Rainer Weiss shares Nobel Prize in physics". MIT News. October 3, 2017.

[12] "Rainer Weiss Biography" (PDF). kavliprize.org. Retrieved 7 July 2018.

[13] Shirley K. Cohen (10 May 2000). "Interview with Rainer Weiss" (PDF). Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology. Retrieved 22 October 2017.

[14] Meet the College Dropout who Invented the Gravitational Wave Detector Adrian Cho Science 4 August 2016

[15] Mervis, Jeffrey. "Got gravitational waves? Thank NSF's approach to building big facilities". Science Magazine. ISSN 1095-9203. Retrieved 2017-11-14.

[16] David Shoemaker (2012). "The Evolution of Advanced LIGO" (PDF). LIGO Magazine (1).

[17] Twilley, Nicola. "Gravitational Waves Exist: The Inside Story of How Scientists Finally Found Them". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2016-02-11.

[PRL-20160211-18] Abbott, B.P.; et al. (2016). "Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger". Phys. Rev. Lett. 116 (6): 061102. arXiv:1602.03837 . Bibcode:2016PhRvL.116f1102A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102. PMID 26918975.

[Naeye-19] Naeye, Robert (February 11, 2016). "Gravitational Wave Detection Heralds New Era of Science". Sky and Telescope. Retrieved February 11, 2016.

[Nature_11Feb16-20] Castelvecchi, Davide; Witze, Alexandra (February 11, 2016). "Einstein's gravitational waves found at last". Nature News. doi:10.1038/nature.2016.19361. Retrieved February 11, 2016.

[22] "Prize Recipient". aps.org.

[23] "Breakthrough Prize – Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics Awarded For Detection of Gravitational Waves 100 Years After Albert Einstein Predicted Their Existence". breakthroughprize.org. San Francisco. May 2, 2016. Retrieved 2017-10-03.

[24] "2016 Gruber Cosmology Prize Press Release". gruber.yale.edu. The Gruber Foundation. May 4, 2016. Retrieved 2017-10-03.

[25] Shaw Prize 2016

[26] Kavli Prize 2016

[27] Harvey Prize 2016

[28] "Meet the Team of Scientists Who Discovered Gravitational Waves". Smithsonian Magazine.

[29] "The Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics". Retrieved March 17, 2017.

[30] Princess of Asturias Award 2017

[31] "Group 2: Astronomy, Physics and Geophysics". Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.

[32] "Joseph Weber Award for Astronomical Instrumentation". American Astronomical Society.

v t e Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Physics
1901–1925	1901 Röntgen 1902 Lorentz / Zeeman 1903 Becquerel / P. Curie / M. Curie 1904 Rayleigh 1905 Lenard 1906 J. J. Thomson 1907 Michelson 1908 Lippmann 1909 Marconi / Braun 1910 Van der Waals 1911 Wien 1912 Dalén 1913 Kamerlingh Onnes 1914 Laue 1915 W. L. Bragg / W. H. Bragg 1916 1917 Barkla 1918 Planck 1919 Stark 1920 Guillaume 1921 Einstein 1922 N. Bohr 1923 Millikan 1924 M. Siegbahn 1925 Franck / Hertz
1926–1950	1926 Perrin 1927 Compton / C. Wilson 1928 O. Richardson 1929 De Broglie 1930 Raman 1931 1932 Heisenberg 1933 Schrödinger / Dirac 1934 1935 Chadwick 1936 Hess / C. D. Anderson 1937 Davisson / G. P. Thomson 1938 Fermi 1939 Lawrence 1940 1941 1942 1943 Stern 1944 Rabi 1945 Pauli 1946 Bridgman 1947 Appleton 1948 Blackett 1949 Yukawa 1950 Powell
1951–1975	1951 Cockcroft / Walton 1952 Bloch / Purcell 1953 Zernike 1954 Born / Bothe 1955 Lamb / Kusch 1956 Shockley / Bardeen / Brattain 1957 C. N. Yang / T. D. Lee 1958 Cherenkov / Frank / Tamm 1959 Segrè / Chamberlain 1960 Glaser 1961 Hofstadter / Mössbauer 1962 Landau 1963 Wigner / Goeppert-Mayer / Jensen 1964 Townes / Basov / Prokhorov 1965 Tomonaga / Schwinger / Feynman 1966 Kastler 1967 Bethe 1968 Alvarez 1969 Gell-Mann 1970 Alfvén / Néel 1971 Gabor 1972 Bardeen / Cooper / Schrieffer 1973 Esaki / Giaever / Josephson 1974 Ryle / Hewish 1975 A. Bohr / Mottelson / Rainwater
1976–2000	1976 Richter / Ting 1977 P. W. Anderson / Mott / Van Vleck 1978 Kapitsa / Penzias / R. Wilson 1979 Glashow / Salam / Weinberg 1980 Cronin / Fitch 1981 Bloembergen / Schawlow / K. Siegbahn 1982 K. Wilson 1983 Chandrasekhar / Fowler 1984 Rubbia / Van der Meer 1985 von Klitzing 1986 Ruska / Binnig / Rohrer 1987 Bednorz / Müller 1988 Lederman / Schwartz / Steinberger 1989 Ramsey / Dehmelt / Paul 1990 Friedman / Kendall / R. Taylor 1991 de Gennes 1992 Charpak 1993 Hulse / J. Taylor 1994 Brockhouse / Shull 1995 Perl / Reines 1996 D. Lee / Osheroff / R. Richardson 1997 Chu / Cohen-Tannoudji / Phillips 1998 Laughlin / Störmer / Tsui 1999 't Hooft / Veltman 2000 Alferov / Kroemer / Kilby
2001– present	2001 Cornell / Ketterle / Wieman 2002 Davis / Koshiba / Giacconi 2003 Abrikosov / Ginzburg / Leggett 2004 Gross / Politzer / Wilczek 2005 Glauber / Hall / Hänsch 2006 Mather / Smoot 2007 Fert / Grünberg 2008 Nambu / Kobayashi / Maskawa 2009 Kao / Boyle / Smith 2010 Geim / Novoselov 2011 Perlmutter / Riess / Schmidt 2012 Wineland / Haroche 2013 Englert / Higgs 2014 Akasaki / Amano / Nakamura 2015 Kajita / McDonald 2016 Thouless / Haldane / Kosterlitz 2017 Weiss / Barish / Thorne

v t e 2017 Nobel Prize laureates
Chemistry	Jacques Dubochet (Switzerland) Joachim Frank (Germany) Richard Henderson (United Kingdom)
Literature	Kazuo Ishiguro (United Kingdom)
Peace (2017)	International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Switzerland)
Physics	Rainer Weiss (United States) Barry Barish (United States) Kip Thorne (United States)
Physiology or Medicine	Jeffrey C. Hall (United States) Michael Rosbash (United States) Michael W. Young (United States)
Economic Sciences	Richard Thaler (United States)
Nobel Prize recipients 1990 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 2000 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

v t e Breakthrough Prize laureates
Fundamental physics	Nima Arkani-Hamed, Alan Guth, Alexei Kitaev, Maxim Kontsevich, Andrei Linde, Juan Maldacena, Nathan Seiberg, Ashoke Sen, Edward Witten (2012) Special: Stephen Hawking, Peter Jenni, Fabiola Gianotti (ATLAS), Michel Della Negra, Tejinder Virdee, Guido Tonelli, Joseph Incandela (CMS) and Lyn Evans (LHC) (2013) Alexander Polyakov (2013) Michael Green and John Henry Schwarz (2014) Saul Perlmutter and members of the Supernova Cosmology Project; Brian Schmidt, Adam Riess and members of the High-Z Supernova Team (2015) Special: Ronald Drever, Kip Thorne, Rainer Weiss and contributors to LIGO project (2016) Yifang Wang and Kam-Biu Luk and the Daya Bay team, Atsuto Suzuki and the KamLAND team, Kōichirō Nishikawa and the K2K / T2K team, Arthur B. McDonald and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory team, Takaaki Kajita and Yōichirō Suzuki and the Super-Kamiokande team (2016) Joseph Polchinski, Andrew Strominger, Cumrun Vafa (2017) Charles L. Bennett, Gary Hinshaw, Norman Jarosik, Lyman Page Jr., David Spergel (2018) Special: Jocelyn Bell Burnell (2018)
Life sciences	Cornelia Bargmann, David Botstein, Lewis C. Cantley, Hans Clevers, Titia de Lange, Napoleone Ferrara, Eric Lander, Charles Sawyers, Robert Weinberg, Shinya Yamanaka and Bert Vogelstein (2013) James P. Allison, Mahlon DeLong, Michael N. Hall, Robert S. Langer, Richard P. Lifton and Alexander Varshavsky (2014) Alim-Louis Benabid, Charles David Allis, Victor Ambros, Gary Ruvkun, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier (2015) Edward Boyden, Karl Deisseroth, John Hardy, Helen Hobbs and Svante Pääbo (2016) Stephen J. Elledge, Harry F. Noller, Roeland Nusse, Yoshinori Ohsumi, Huda Zoghbi (2017) Joanne Chory, Peter Walter, Kazutoshi Mori, Kim Nasmyth, Don W. Cleveland (2018)
Mathematics	Simon Donaldson, Maxim Kontsevich, Jacob Lurie, Terence Tao and Richard Taylor (2015) Ian Agol (2016) Jean Bourgain (2017) Christopher Hacon, James McKernan (2018)

v t e Kavli Prize laureates
Astrophysics	Maarten Schmidt, Donald Lynden-Bell (2008) Jerry E. Nelson, Raymond N. Wilson, Roger Angel (2010) David C. Jewitt, Jane Luu, Michael E. Brown (2012) Alan Guth, Andrei Linde, Alexei Starobinsky (2014) Ronald Drever, Kip Thorne, Rainer Weiss (2016) Ewine van Dishoeck (2018)
Nanoscience	Louis E. Brus, Sumio Iijima (2008) Donald Eigler, Nadrian Seeman (2010) Mildred Dresselhaus (2012) Thomas Ebbesen, Stefan Hell, John Pendry (2014) Gerd Binnig, Christoph Gerber, Calvin Quate (2016) Emmanuelle Charpentier, Jennifer Doudna, Virginijus Šikšnys (2018)
Neuroscience	Sten Grillner, Thomas Jessell, Pasko Rakic (2008) Richard Scheller, Thomas C. Südhof, James Rothman (2010) Cornelia Bargmann, Winfried Denk, Ann Graybiel (2012) Brenda Milner, John O'Keefe, Marcus Raichle (2014) Eve Marder, Michael Merzenich, Carla J. Shatz (2016) A. James Hudspeth, Robert Fettiplace, Christine Petit (2018)

v t e Shaw Prize laureates
Astronomy	Jim Peebles (2004) Geoffrey Marcy and Michel Mayor (2005) Saul Perlmutter, Adam Riess and Brian Schmidt (2006) Peter Goldreich (2007) Reinhard Genzel (2008) Frank Shu (2009) Charles Bennett, Lyman Page and David Spergel (2010) Enrico Costa and Gerald Fishman (2011) David Jewitt and Jane Luu (2012) Steven Balbus and John Hawley (2013) Daniel Eisenstein, Shaun Cole and John Peacock (2014) William Borucki (2015) Ronald Drever, Kip Thorne and Rainer Weiss (2016) Simon White (2017) Jean-Loup Puget (2018)
Life science and medicine	Stanley Norman Cohen, Herbert Boyer, Kan Yuet-wai and Richard Doll (2004) Michael Berridge (2005) Xiaodong Wang (2006) Robert Lefkowitz (2007) Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and Shinya Yamanaka (2008) Douglas Coleman and Jeffrey Friedman (2009) David Julius (2010) Jules Hoffmann, Ruslan Medzhitov and Bruce Beutler (2011) Franz-Ulrich Hartl and Arthur Horwich (2012) Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young (2013) Kazutoshi Mori and Peter Walter (2014) Bonnie Bassler and Everett Peter Greenberg (2015) Adrian Bird and Huda Zoghbi (2016) Ian R. Gibbons and Ronald Vale (2017) Mary-Claire King (2018)
Mathematical science	Shiing-Shen Chern (2004) Andrew Wiles (2005) David Mumford and Wu Wenjun (2006) Robert Langlands and Richard Taylor (2007) Vladimir Arnold and Ludvig Faddeev (2008) Simon Donaldson and Clifford Taubes (2009) Jean Bourgain (2010) Demetrios Christodoulou and Richard S. Hamilton (2011) Maxim Kontsevich (2012) David Donoho (2013) George Lusztig (2014) Gerd Faltings and Henryk Iwaniec (2015) Nigel Hitchin (2016) János Kollár and Claire Voisin (2017) Luis A. Caffarelli (2018)

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Rainer Weiss

Rainer Weiss

Contents

Early life and education[edit]

Achievements[edit]

Honors and awards[edit]

Selected publications[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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Crossroads (UK TV series)

Rainer Weiss
Weiss in June 2018
Born	(1932-09-29) September 29, 1932 (age 85) Berlin, Germany
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	Nergis Mavalvala
Other notable students	Bruce Allen
Influences	Robert H. Dicke