Special Breakthrough Prize for detection of gravitational waves

3 mei 2016

The Selection Committee of the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics today announced a Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics recognizing scientists and engineers contributing to the momentous detection of gravitational waves – a detection announced on February 11, 2016. The Special Breakthrough Prize can be conferred at any time in recognition of an extraordinary scientific achievement. The $3 million award will be shared between two groups of laureates: the three founders of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), who will each equally share $1 million; and 1012 contributors to the experiment, who will each equally share $2 million.

The contributors sharing the prize include 1005 authors of the paper describing the discovery of gravitational waves from the numerous institutions involved in LIGO and its sister experiment, the Virgo Collaboration. A total of 22 authors from Nikhef, Radboud University and VU University Amsterdam share in the prize.

The Breakthrough Prize had been awarded to the contributors for recording waves from two black holes colliding over a billion light years away.

About the Breakthrough Prizes
The Breakthrough Prizes honor important, primarily recent, achievements in the categories of Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences and Mathematics.

The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics was founded in 2012 by Yuri Milner to recognize those individuals who have made profound contributions to human knowledge. It is open to all physicists — theoretical, mathematical, experimental — working on the deepest mysteries of the Universe.

The 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics was awarded to neutrino oscillation.

More information
Science Communications department – email – 020 5925075
Prof. Jo van den Brand – email – 020 5922015 / 06 20539484
Read the original press release from Breakthrough Prize.

Modelling gravitational wave complexity. Credit: MPI for Gravitational Physics/W.Benger-ZIB
Modelling gravitational wave complexity. Credit: MPI for Gravitational Physics/W.Benger-ZIB