Opening a New Window Into the Universe

The 100-year Quest for Einstein’s Gravitational Waves.

Professor Nergis Mavalvala is a physicist researching the detection of gravitational waves and quantum measurement science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been a recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant and, in 2017, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

In 2016, Professor Mavalvala was part of a scientific team that made the first direct detection of gravitational waves using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. Her talk will explain how these waves are ripples in the spacetime fabric caused by the motion of massive astrophysical objects such as black holes and neutron stars, and how the field of gravitational wave astrophysics is providing a completely new window into the universe.