LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy Professor Gabriela González has been named one of the top 10 scientists in the world by the scientific journal Nature.
González serves as the spokesperson for the 1,000-member international LIGO Scientific Collaboration. LIGO, which stands for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, detected the gravitational waves in 2015 predicted by Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, and opened a new window of discovery to the cosmos.
In addition to being named among the world’s top 10 scientists by Nature, González was named Scientist of the Year by Great Minds in STEM, and one of the top 100 Leading Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. She was also awarded the highest distinction from the Senate of Argentina, the Honorable Domingo Faustino Sarmiento award. On behalf of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, she received the 2016 Breakthrough of the Year from Physics World for “their revolutionary, first ever direct observations of gravitational waves.”
González is an experimental physicist with LIGO and a professor in the LSU Department of Physics and Astronomy. Her research involves the reduction of noise to enhance the instrument’s sensitivity to detect potential gravitational waves, calibrate the detectors and analyze data.
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