Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM
Monday, February 1, 2010 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium
Peter R. Saulson
"Gravitational Wave Detectors: Technology and Science"
ABSTRACT -- The search for gravitational waves has entered a new era, with the successful completion of a year's worth of data collection by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) and collaborating projects. Now, all eyes are on the preparations for Advanced LIGO, slated to come on line in the middle of this decade, which is expected to make frequent detection of gravitational wave signals and open the field of gravitational wave astronomy. In this talk, I will review the basic ideas of interferometric gravitational wave detection, summarize the scientific results to date, and explain some of the fascinating technology behind the rapid progress in this field.
SPEAKER -- Peter Saulson is the Martin A. Pomerantz '37 Professor of Physics at Syracuse University. He has been at Syracuse since 1991, after having served on the research staff at MIT for eight years. He earned his Bachelor's degree at Harvard in 1976 and his Ph.D. at Princeton in 1981. His research focuses on the search for gravitational waves. He has been involved in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) project since its inception, and served as the Spokesperson of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration from 2003 to 2007.