Rockville Science Cafe | RSC

Register for the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwof–urz4sGNfuZBxdV9C024pSKgmxMPLP#/registration

Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves, ripples on space-time propagating from accelerating masses, in 1916. Fast forward 100 years later, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) announced the first detection of a gravitational wave from two stellar-mass black holes that coalesced 1.3 billion years ago. Since then, there have been ~100 detections. This talk will discuss what gravitational waves are and how they are detected.

Our speaker: Amber Stuver, Ph.D., is an associate professor of physics at Villanova University, and has been a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) since 1999. Before joining Villanova in 2017, she spent a decade working at the LIGO Livingston Observatory and teaching at the Louisiana State University. She earned her PhD (2006) and MEd (2001) in physics from the Pennsylvania State University and her B.S in Physics (1999) from Frostburg State University, MD.  Besides teaching and research, Dr. Stuver is experienced in science communication, having given tours to thousands of visitors to the LIGO Livingston Observatory, speaking at many local venues, and writing content for outlets like TED-Ed.

This is the first in a series of presentations from LIGO collaborators.