27 January 2017 — Present and past leaders of the LIGO Laboratory and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration were recognized with major prizes by the National Academy of Sciences and the American Astronomical Society. The entire LIGO Team was recognized by the UK Royal Astronomical Society.
On January 25th the High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) awarded the Bruno Rossi Prize to Gabriela González and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC). The Rossi Prize is awarded annually to recognize “a significant contribution to High Energy Astrophysics, with particular emphasis on recent, original work.” González is a professor of physics and astronomy at Louisiana State University (LSU) and has been the LSC spokesperson since 2011. More information about the award can be found on the AAS website.
On January 26th the National Academy of Scienes (NAS) awarded the Henry Draper Medal to Barry Barish and Stan Whitcomb, and the NAS Award for Scientific Discovery to Gabriela González, David H. Reitze, and Peter R. Saulson.
The Henry Draper Medal is awarded every four years and honors “a recent, original investigation in astronomical physics, of importance and benefit to science to merit such recognition.” Barry Barish is the Linde Professor of Physics, Emeritus at the California Institute of Technology. Barish was the Principal Investigator of LIGO from 1994 to 2005, during the period of its construction and initial operation. Stan Whitcomb is the LIGO Laboratory Chief Scientist at the California Institute of Technology. Whitcomb has been working on gravitational-wave detection since 1980; he led the team that designed and commissioned the initial LIGO detectors and helped train the team that built Advanced LIGO. More information about the award can be found on the website for the 2017 NAS Henry Draper Medal.
The NAS Award for Scientific Discovery is presented every two years for “an accomplishment or discovery in basic research, achieved within the previous five years, that is expected to have a significant impact on one or more of the following fields: astronomy, biochemistry, biophysics, chemistry, materials science, or physics.” The 2017 award recognizes the first three elected spokespersons of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration: Saulson, Reitze, and González. (Rai Weiss was the first spokesperson of the LSC). Peter Saulson is the Martin A. Pomerantz ’37 Professor of Physics at Syracuse University. David Reitze is the Executive Director of LIGO Laboratory at Caltech and a Professor of Physics at the University of Florida. The award recognizes the role of the current and past spokespersons in leading the LIGO team to the first direct detections of gravitational waves in 2015. More information can be found on the webpage for the 2017 NAS Award for Scientific Discovery.
On January 13, 2017 the UK Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) awarded their 2017 Group Achievement Award in Astronomy to the LIGO Team, in recognition of the first direct detection of gravitational waves. More information can be found at the RAS news release.