The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne on Tuesday. The scientists were awarded “for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves.”
The announcement was made by Secretary General Göran K. Hansson of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm Sweden.
On 14 September 2015, the universe’s gravitational waves were observed for the very first time. The waves, which were predicted by Albert Einstein a hundred years ago, came from a collision between two black holes. It took 1.3 billion years for the waves to arrive at the LIGO detector in the USA.
Details about the winners
Rainer Weiss, born 1932 in Berlin, Germany. Ph.D. 1962 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA. Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Barry C. Barish, born 1936 in Omaha, NE, USA. Ph.D. 1962 from University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Linde Professor of Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
Kip S. Thorne, born 1940 in Logan, UT, USA. Ph.D. 1965 from Princeton University, NJ, USA. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
The prize in physics is awarded by the Academy which selected the laureate through a majority vote held on Tuesday morning.
The Nobel prize is currently worth 9 million Swedish kronor.
Since 1901, 110 Nobel Prizes in Physics have been awarded to 203 individuals.
