2016 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics Goes to Gravitational-Wave Pioneers
The 2016 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics goes to Ronald W. P. Drever, Kip S. Thorne and Rainer Weiss for the direct detection of gravitational waves.
The Kavli Prize is awarded by The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and consists of a cash award of 1 million US dollars. The laureates receive in addition a gold medal and a scroll. Today’s announcement was made by Ole M. Sejersted, President of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and transmitted live to New York as part of a World Science Festival event where France Córdova, Director of the National Science Foundation, delivered the keynote address.
The Kavli Prize in Astrophysics is shared between Ronald W. P. Drever and Kip S. Thorne, both from the California Institute of Technology, USA, and Rainer Weiss of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. They receive the prize “for the direct detection of gravitational waves.”
The signal picked up by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in the US on September 14, 2015, lasted just a fifth of a second but brought to an end a decades-long hunt to directly detect the ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves. It also opened up a completely new way of doing astronomy, which uses gravitational rather than electromagnetic radiation to study some of the most extreme and violent phenomena in the universe.
This detection has, in a single stroke and for the first time, validated Einstein’s general theory of relativity for very strong fields, established the nature of gravitational waves, demonstrated the existence of black holes with masses 30 times that of our Sun, and opened a new window on the universe.
The detection of gravitational waves is an achievement for which hundreds of scientists, engineers and technicians around the world share credit. Drever, Thorne and Weiss stand out: their ingenuity, inspiration, intellectual leadership and tenacity were the driving force behind this epic discovery.
The Kavli Prize is a partnership between the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, The Kavli Foundation (USA) and the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. The Kavli Prizes were initiated by and named after Fred Kavli (1927-2013), founder of The Kavli Foundation, which is dedicated to advancing science for the benefit of humanity, promoting public understanding of scientific research, and supporting scientists and their work.
Kavli Prize recipients are chosen biennially by prize committees comprised of distinguished international scientists recommended by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the French Academy of Sciences, the Max Planck Society, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society. After the prize committees have selected the award recipients, their recommendations are confirmed by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
The 2016 Kavli Prizes will be awarded in Oslo, Norway, on 6 September. His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon will present the prizes to the laureates. This year’s ceremony will be hosted by Alan Alda and Lena Kristin Ellingsen. Prime Minister Erna Solberg will host a banquet at Oslo City Hall in honor of the laureates. The ceremony is part of Kavli Prize Week — a week of special programs to celebrate extraordinary achievements in science.
More detailed information on each of the prizes, the 2016 laureates and their work, the Kavli Prize and all the events, please see the Kavli Prize website ( http://www.kavliprize.org).
