Gravitational Waves: a new window to the Universe

Dr Gabriela Gonzalez

Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, USA

Friday, May 11, 8:00PM, Physics Lecture Theatre 1,

Sandy Bay Campus, University of Tasmania

ABSTRACT:

Gravitational waves provide a new and unique way to look at the Universe, making possible the study of black holes and strong gravity fields. Even though their existence was predicted by Einstein at the beginning of the century, they are weak enough to have escaped detection so far. Large-scale interferometric observatories are being built over the world (including Australia!) to find the elusive waves and create a new and different map of the sky. Dr Gonzalez will describe the allure of gravitational waves, the experimental challenge involved in their detection, and the exciting prospects for the near future.

SPEAKER:

Dr Gabriela Gonzalez, assistant professor of physics from Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, USA has been selected by the Australian Institute of Physics (AIP) as its Women in Physics Lecturer for 2001.

The AIP's International Women in Physics Lecture Series was instituted to celebrate the contribution of women to advances in physics. Accordingly, a woman who has made a significant contribution in a field of physics has been selected each year since 1997 to give at least one lecture in a venue arranged by each participating branch of the AIP. The lectures are intended to be of interest to an audience of non-specialists in physics and are expected to increase awareness among students and their families of the possibilities offered by the continuing study of physics.

Dr Gabriela Gonzalez, whose experimental research focuses on gravity, gravitational waves, and gravitational wave detection, has been a member of the Penn State faculty since 1997.

Prior to her arrival at the University, she was a staff scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory project. She earned her doctoral degree in physics at Syracuse University in 1995 and her bachelor's in physics at the University of Cordoba in Argentina in 1988.

She is married to Jorge Pullin, who is a professor of physics at Penn State. She says that they are a living example that Einstein was wrong when he said that gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love, they met at a gravity meeting!