Director's Colloquium

The search for gravitational waves - Ripples from the dark side of the Universe

Professor Sheila Rowan
2014 presenter
AIP Women in Physics Lecture Series

Gravitational Waves are amongst the most elusive signals from our Universe reaching the earth – ‘ripples in the curvature of space-time’. The information carried by these signals will give us new insight into the hearts of some of the most violent events in the Cosmos – from black holes to the beginning of the Universe. A global network of gravitational wave detectors is in now reaching the final stages of construction, with first data expected in 2015. The nature of gravitational waves, how the detectors work and what the data from the detectors can tell us about the Universe we inhabit will be discussed.

Professor Sheila Rowan is an experimental physicist, and since 2009, Director of the Institute for Gravitational Research in the School of Physics and Astronomy in the University of Glasgow in the UK. She received her BSc (1991) and PhD (1995) in the field of gravitational wave instrumentation from the University of Glasgow. She was awarded a Leverhulme Prize for Astronomy and Astrophysics in 2005, appointed to Fellowship of the UK Institute of Physics in 2006, elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2008, was the recipient of a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2010 and awarded Fellowship of the American Physical Society in 2012. She was made an MBE for services to science in the Queen's Birthday Hours list in 2011 and has published more than 150 articles in refereed journals.

Snacks will be provided at 11:30am prior to the Colloquium in the RSPE tearoom Oliphant Building 60

There is no RSVP for this event. Please arrive early to secure a seat.

Date & time

Thu 23 Oct 2014, 12–1pm

Location

Leonard Huxley Lecture Theatre

Audience

Staff, students and public welcome

Contact

(02)61254916