Name Ronald Drever | Role Physicist | |
From childhood tinkering to gravitational waves
Ronald William Prest Drever (26 October 1931 – 7 March 2017) was a Scottish experimental physicist. He was a professor emeritus at the California Institute of Technology, co-founded the LIGO project, and was a co-inventor of the Pound–Drever–Hall technique for laser stabilisation. This work was instrumental in the first detection of gravitational waves in September 2015.
Contents
- From childhood tinkering to gravitational waves
- Ronald drever co founder of ligo has died
- Education
- Career and research
- Honors and awards
- References
Drever died on 7 March 2017, aged 85.
Ronald drever, co-founder of ligo, has died
Education
Drever was educated at the University of Glasgow where he was awarded a bachelor's degree in 1953 followed by a PhD in 1959 for research on orbital electron capture using proportional counters.
Career and research
After his PhD, Drever did postdoctoral research in Glasgow before being recruited to form a gravitational wave program at Caltech.
Drever's contributions to the design and implementation of the LIGO interferometers were critically important to their ability to function in the extreme sensitivity realm required for detection of gravitational waves (10−23 strain).
Drever's most recent work involved the development of magnetically levitated optical tables for seismic isolation of experimental apparatus.
Honors and awards
Drever was recognized by numerous awards including: