May 2016
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Yuri Milner, a Russian entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and physicist, is giving $3 million as a Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics to honor the scientists and engineers involved in the gravitational-wave discovery announced earlier this year. $1 million will be shared equally by the three LIGO founders, Ronald Drever, Kip Thorne, and Rainer Weiss, and the remaining $2 million will be shared equally by the 1,012 contributors.
Read the Breakthrough Prize announcement. -
The Gruber Foundation's $500,000 Cosmology Prize, will be conferred to the founders and the entire LIGO team for "pursuing a vision to observe the universe in gravitational waves, leading to a first detection that emanated from the collision of two black holes." The prize citation continues, "This remarkable event provided the first glimpse into the strong-gravity regime of Einstein's theory of general relativity that governs the dynamics of black holes, giving direct evidence for their existence, and demonstrating that their nature is consistent with the predictions of general relativity."
Read the full press release on the Gruber Cosmology Prize.
January 2016
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At this month's meeting of the American Astronomical Society, CIERA REU student Eryn Cangi was awarded a Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Award. This honor is given to recognize exemplary research by students who present at one of the poster sessions at the meetings of the AAS. Read the AAS Press Release about the Chambliss Awards.
November 2015
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CIERA Members and Professors Giles Novak (Physics & Astronomy) and Brad Sageman (Earth & Planetary Sciences) were nominated by their students to the 2015 Associated Student Government Faculty Honor Roll. This hand-picked list is developed every year by students to recognize exceptional teaching by professors in their classes, and exceptional work by administrators in caring for students.
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Northwestern University's Science in Society holds an annual competition to find the most beautiful science images from researchers all over campus. CIERA and NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow Aaron Geller collaborated with Physics and Astronomy graduate student Jason Hwang and Professor Fred Rasio, to create an image of the collision of two hot Jupiter planets orbiting a Sun-like star. Their image, "When Worlds Collide," won the People's Choice Award and an Honorable Mention in this year's contest.
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Dr. Vicky Kalogera, E.O. Haven Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Physics & Astronomy, was elected to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Corporation’s (LSSTC) Executive Board of Directors. In this capacity, Dr. Kalogera will participate in the oversight and administration of the Corporation.
October 2015
- Dr. Vicky Kalogera, E.O. Haven Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Physics & Astronomy, was awarded the 2016 Hans A. Bethe Prize from the American Physical Society (APS). The Bethe is the only astrophysics prize within the APS. Dr. Kalogera's citation reads, “For key contributions to the study of the electromagnetic and gravitational wave radiation from binary compact objects, including the now-verified prediction that neutron star mergers produce short gamma-ray bursts that will be found in all galaxy types.”
- Shane Larson, Research Associate Professor and Astronomer at Adler Planetarium, was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Dr. Larson's citation commends him for "Impacting science and society through the integration of public engagement and research, and for empowering generations of future scientists by his example."
September 2015
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CIERA Director Vicky Kalogera accepted an invitation to serve on the Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics (CAA) of the National Research Council. The CAA’s purpose is to support scientific progress in astronomy and astrophysics and assist the federal government in integrating and planning programs in these fields. Dr. Kalogera’s expertise in the origin and evolution of compact objects in stellar systems was cited as a meaningful addition to the CAA.