Laura Cadonati is an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

who specializes in

gravitational waves Gravitational waves are oscillations of the gravitational field that travel through space at the speed of light; they are generated by the relative motion of gravitating masses. They were proposed by Oliver Heaviside in 1893 and then later by H ...

Career

Cadonati completed her PhD at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 2001 with her thesis ''The Borexino Solar Neutrino Experiment and its Scintillator Containment Vessel''. She was an associate professor in the physics department at

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

before moving to the Center for Relativistic Astrophysics at

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

in 2015. Cadonati has been a member of the

Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool. Prior to LIG ...

(LIGO) collaboration since 2002, and was involved in the first observations of gravitational waves in 2015. In 2017 she became the first deputy spokesperson for LIGO and was widely quoted in the media as LIGO detected its third gravitational wave. Cadonati became associate dean for research in the College of Sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology in 2021. She is a member of the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

Awards and honors

* 2010

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

CAREER award * 2015

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of fellows of the ...

for "leadership of the gravitational-wave data analysis and astrophysics efforts of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, including work connecting numerical modeling of sources to observations with the LIGO, Virgo, and GEO detectors" * 2018 Outstanding Faculty Research Author Award

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cadonati, Laura Living people Gravitational-wave astrophysicists American women physicists Georgia Tech faculty Princeton University alumni Fellows of the American Physical Society 21st-century American physicists 21st-century American women scientists Year of birth missing (living people)