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short introduction by Derek Westen & Lars Bildsten.
The existence of gravitational radiation is one of the most elegant
predictions of Einstein's theory of general relativity. Almost 100
years after the theory was put forward, however, the direct detection of
these waves remains elusive. Scientists in the United States and around
the world have now built exquisite instruments, such as Laser
Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), sensitive enough
to see gravitational waves from the cosmos. The first detection will
usher in a new era of scientific discovery using gravitational waves as
an astronomical tool to see black holes, neutron stars, and signals from
the beginning of the universe. Brady will discuss the technical
challenges of this endeavor, what has been achieved so far, and the
prospects for gravitational-wave astronomy over the next decade.
Patrick Brady received his B.Sc. in Mathematical Science from
University College Dublin in 1988 and a Ph.D. in Physics from the
University of Alberta in 1994 where he studied with Werner Israel. He
was a research associate at University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne from
1993-1995, a Prize Fellow at Caltech from 1995-1998 and a research
associate at University of California, Santa Barbara from 1998-1999.
Since 1999, Brady has been at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he
holds the rank of Professor and is Director of the Leonard E Parker
Center for Gravitation, Cosmology, and Astrophysics. Brady received a
Research Corporation Cottrell Scholar Award and a Sloan Research
Fellowship in 2002. Brady was made a Fellow of the American Physical
Society in 2010. He was Secretary/Treasurer of the American Physical
Society Topical Group in Gravitation 2002-2005 and was elected
Vice-Chair in 2009. Brady serves on the Executive Committee of the LIGO
Scientific Collaboration. His current research focuses on the analysis
and interpretation of data from the worldwide network of
gravitational-wave detectors.
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