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Rainer Weiss

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Rainer Weiss
Born (1932-09-29) September 29, 1932 (age 92)
Berlin, Germany
CitizenshipUnited States
Alma materMIT
Known forPioneering laser interferometric gravitational wave observation.
AwardsEinstein Prize (2007) by American Physical Society
Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2016)
Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2016)
Shaw Prize (2016)
Kavli Prize (2016)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics, Laser physics, Experimental Gravitation, Cosmic Background Measurements
InstitutionsMIT
Thesis Stark effect and hyperfine structure of hydrogen-flouride  (1962)
Doctoral advisorJerrold R. Zacharias
Doctoral studentsShaoul Ezekiel, Nelson Christensen, Peter Fritschel, Michelle Stephens, Joseph Kovalik, Joseph Giaime, Nergis Mavalvala, Partha Saha, Brett Bochner, Brian Lantz, Julien Sylvestre, Ryan Lawrence, Rana Adhikari

Rainer (Rai) Weiss (born September 29, 1932) is a professor of physics emeritus at MIT. He is best known for inventing the laser interferometric technique which is the basic operation of LIGO. Rainer Weiss was Chair of the COBE Science Working Group.[1][2][3]

Early life and education

Rainer Weiss was born on 29 September 1932 in Berlin, Germany.[4] Fleeing Nazi rule, his family moved first to Prague, in late 1932, and then to the United States, in 1938; his youth was spent in New York City, where he attended Columbia Grammar School. He studied at MIT, and after dropping out in his junior year[5] returned to receive his B.S. in 1955 and Ph.D. in 1962 from Jerrold Zacharias. He taught at Tufts University in 1960–62, was a postdoctoral scholar at Princeton University from 1962–64, and then joined the faculty at MIT in 1964.[4]

Achievements

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

Weiss also invented the interferometric gravitational wave detector, and co-founded the NSF LIGO (gravitational-wave detection) project.

Both of these efforts couple challenges in instrument science with physics important to the understanding of the Universe.[6] In 2007, with Ronald Drever, he was awarded the Einstein Prize for this work.[7]

In February 2016, he was one of the four scientists presenting at the press conference for the announcement that the first direct gravitational wave observation had been made in September 2015.[8][9][10][11][a] For this achievement, in 2016 he received the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, Gruber Prize in Cosmology, Shaw Prize and the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics together with Kip Thorne and Ronald Drever.[12][13]

Selected publications

  • 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. Bibcode:1957PhRv..105..590S. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.105.590.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • R. Weiss (1961). "Molecular Beam Electron Bombardment Detector". Rev. Sci. Instr. 32 (4): 397. 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. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
  • Weiss, Rainer (1963). "Stark Effect and Hyperfine Structure of Hydrogen Fluoride". Phys. Rev. 131 (2): 659. Bibcode:1963PhRv..131..659W. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.131.659.
  • R. Weiss; B. Block (1965). "A Gravimeter to Monitor the OSO Dilational Model of the Earth". J. Geophy. Res. 70 (22): 5615. Bibcode:1965JGR....70.5615W. doi:10.1029/JZ070i022p05615. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
  • 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. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
  • R. Weiss (1967). "Electric and Magnetic Field Probes". Amer. J. Phys. 35 (11): 1047. 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. 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. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
  • 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. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
  • 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. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
  • R. Weiss; D.K. Owens (1974). "Measurements of the Phase Fluctuations on a He-Ne Zeeman Laser". Rev. Sci. Inst. 45 (9): 1060. doi:10.1063/1.1686809. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
  • 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. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
  • 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.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • R. Weiss (1980). "Measurements of the Cosmic Background Radiation". Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics. 18: 489. 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". Ap. J. Let. 271: L1. Bibcode:1983ApJ...271L...1M. doi:10.1086/184080. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
  • 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". Ap. J. 332: 596. Bibcode:1988ApJ...332..596H. doi:10.1086/166679.{{cite journal}}: 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". Ap. J. 354: L37. Bibcode:1990ApJ...354L..37M. doi:10.1086/185717.{{cite journal}}: 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". Ap. J. 360: 685. Bibcode:1990ApJ...360..685S. doi:10.1086/169154.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • R. Weiss (1990). "Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors". In N. Ashby; D. Bartlett; W. Wyss (eds.). 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.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Notes

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

References

  1. ^ a b Lars Brink (2 June 2014). Nobel Lectures in Physics (2006 – 2010). World Scientific. pp. 25–. ISBN 978-981-4612-70-8.
  2. ^ a b "NASA and COBE Scientists Win Top Cosmology Prize". NASA. 2006. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  3. ^ a b Weiss, Rainer (1980). "Measurements of the Cosmic Background Radiation". Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 18: 489–535.
  4. ^ a b Weiss CV at mit.edu
  5. ^ Meet the College Dropout who Invented the Gravitational Wave Detector Adrian Cho Science 4 August 2016
  6. ^ David Shoemaker (2012). "The Evolution of Advanced LIGO" (PDF). LIGO magazine (1).
  7. ^ "Prize Recipient". aps.org.
  8. ^ Twilley, Nicola. "Gravitational Waves Exist: The Inside Story of How Scientists Finally Found Them". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2016-02-11.
  9. ^ Abbott, B.P.; et al. (2016). "Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger". Phys. Rev. Lett. 116: 061102. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102.
  10. ^ Naeye, Robert (11 February 2016). "Gravitational Wave Detection Heralds New Era of Science". Sky and Telescope. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  11. ^ Castelvecchi, Davide; Witze, Alexandra (11 February 2016). "Einstein's gravitational waves found at last". Nature News. doi:10.1038/nature.2016.19361. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  12. ^ Shaw Prize 2016
  13. ^ http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/9-scientific-pioneers-receive-the-2016-kavli-prizes-300278385.html

Further reading

  • Cho, A. (August 5, 2016). "The storyteller". Science. 353 (6299): 532–537. doi:10.1126/science.353.6299.532.
  • Mather, John and John Boslough, The Very First Light: The True Inside Story of the Scientific Journey Back to the Dawn of the Universe, ISBN 978-0-465-01576-4
  • Bartusiak, M., Einstein's Unfinished Symphony: Listening to the Sounds of Space-Time, ISBN 978-0-425-18620-6
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