ann16039 — Announcement

The Kavli Prize
2 September 2016
Award of the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics 2016

Three pioneering scientists are the recipients of this year’s Kavli Prize in Astrophysics for their research on gravitational waves.

The 2016 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics is shared between Ronald W.P. Drever and Kip S. Thorne, both from the California Institute of Technology, USA, and Rainer Weiss of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. They receive the prize “for the direct detection of gravitational waves”.

This detection has, in a stroke and for the first time: validated Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity for very strong fields; established the nature of gravitational waves; and demonstrated the existence of black holes with masses 30 times that of our Sun. It has also opened up a completely new way of doing astronomy, which uses gravitational rather than electromagnetic radiation to study some of the most extreme and violent phenomena in the Universe.

The Kavli Prize is awarded every two years by The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and consists of a cash award of 1 million US dollars in each field. The laureates also receive a gold medal and a commemorative scroll. Groundbreaking research in the fields of nanoscience and neuroscience is also recognised along with astrophysics.

The Kavli Prize was announced and live webcast on 2 June and the award ceremony itself will take place in Oslo, Norway on 6 September 2016. The IAU President, Silvia Torres Peimbert, and the General Secretary, Piero Benvenuti, will attend the ceremony.

Links

Contacts

Lars Lindberg Christensen
IAU Press Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 320 06 761
Cell: +49 173 38 72 621
Email: lars@eso.org

Raquel Yumi Shida
IAU Press Officer Deputy
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 320 06 177
Email: rshida@eso.org

About the Announcement

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ann16039

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The Kavli Prize