LIGO A Big Topic at the 2016 World Science Festival!

Watch the 2016 Kavli Prize announcement, Barry Barish's address, a panel discussion with LIGO members, and more. LIGO was a big topic at the 2016 World Science Festival! The Festival took place on June 2-5, 2016 in New York City. On Thursday, June 2, LIGO's former Director and PI, Prof Barry Barish (Caltech) and two of the Project's founders, Prof Kip S. Thorne (Caltech) and Prof Rainer Weiss (MIT) joined Dr Walter Isaacson (President and CEO, Aspen Institute) to discuss LIGO discovery and the future of Big Science.

Also on Thursday, June 2, the Kavli Foundation announced the award of the 2016 Kavli Prize to LIGO's founders Ronald Drever (Caltech), Kip Thorne (Caltech), and Rainer Weiss (MIT); read about it or watch it here:



On Friday, June 3, Prof Barish and Prof Weiss participated in the "World Science U for a Day" event, whose topic was "Triumphs and mysteries of gravity." In another "World Science U for a Day," on Saturday, June 4, Prof Nergis Mavalvala (LIGO MIT) discussed LIGO research and discoveries during the event called "Chasing waves from the brain to deep space."

Then on Saturday, June 4, Prof Barish (Caltech) gave the 2016 On the Shoulders of Giants address, "From Einstein to Gravitational Waves and Beyond" -- watch it here:



Also on June 4, a panel discussion titled "Gravitational Waves: A New Era of Astronomy Begins" took place. Several distinguished LIGO memebrs: Prof Barry Barish (Caltech); Prof Nergis Mavalvala (MIT); Dr David Shoemaker (MIT); and Prof Rainer Weiss (MIT) -- joined Dr Frans Pretorius (Princeton) and moderator Dr Brain Greene to discuss how LIGO's discovery will help explore the universe in ways that weren't possible before. Watch it here: