Iconic Voices from MIT: Opening a New Window into the Universe with Dr Nergis Mavalvala

26 Jul 2019 5.00PM to 6:00PM SUTD Auditorium, 8 Somapah Road, Singapore 487372

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In 2016, the first ever detections of gravitational waves from colliding black holes and neutron stars launched a new era of gravitational wave astrophysics.

Opening a New Window into the Universe: The 100-Year Quest for Einstein's Gravitational Waves

More than 100 years ago, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves. In 2016, Dr Nergis Mavalvala and her team made the first ever detections of gravitational waves from colliding black holes and neutron stars, which launched a new era of gravitational wave astrophysics. Don't miss this opportunity to hear from Dr Mavalvala as she shares the science, technology and human story behind this groundbreaking discovery and how her team is helping to solve decades-long mysteries.

About the Speaker

Dr Nergis Mavalvala is an astrophysicist working on the detection of gravitational waves and quantum measurement science. She is a longtime member of the scientific team that announced in 2016 the first direct detection of gravitational waves from colliding black holes by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). In the quest for ever greater sensitivity in the LIGO detectors, Mavalvala has also conducted pioneering experiments on generation and application of exotic quantum states of light, and has developed techniques that could enable observation of quantum phenomena, that usually manifest at the atomic scale, in human-scale systems.

Mavalvala received a BA from Wellesley College and a PhD from MIT. She was a postdoctoral fellow and research scientist at the California Institute of Technology before joining the Physics faculty at MIT in 2002, and was appointed Associate Department Head of Physics in February 2015. Mavalvala is recipient of numerous honours, including a MacArthur “Genius” award in 2010 and election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2016.

About the Iconic Voices from MIT lecture series

Sponsored by Far East Organization, this series of lectures features leading faculty such as Nobel laureates or Pritzker Architecture Prize winners from MIT. It is formulated to educate the public, industry professionals and students in different areas of science, architecture, technology and design, and the impact of these elements on our future. This lecture series provides a learning platform through which the audience can interact with the various experts in their respective fields.