News Release • November 29, 2019 Winner of the 2019 Award for Excellence in Detector Characterization and Calibration Is Announced: Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Ling Sun is now a Postdoctoral Scholar in the California Institute of Technology, working on gravitational-wave data analysis and detector calibration in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. She got her PhD degree in Physics in the University of Melbourne (Australia), and masters degree in Communication and Information Systems in Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China). She worked in IBM China System and Technology Lab as a software engineer and project manager before starting her PhD. Her primary research interests include gravitational-wave signal processing, learning fundamental physics from gravitational-wave observations, and gravitational-wave detector calibration. Image: Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab The LIGO Laboratory congratulates Dr. Ling “Lilli” Sun of Caltech for winning this year’s LIGO Laboratory Award for Excellence in Detector Characterization and Calibration. Her outstanding contributions to the estimation of gravitational-wave strain incident on the LIGO detectors in near real time, including systematic error and uncertainty, are foundational to all astrophysical results generated with Advanced LIGO data collected during the current observing run (O3). Dr. Sun played a leading role in every part of constructing the required detector models and uncertainties for both LIGO detectors leading up to and during O3. She updated the calibration model to reflect new features in the detectors, improved estimation of systematic errors, and developed an analysis to produce these uncertainty and systematic error estimates every hour in real time. Dr. Sun’s work has enabled a wide range of gravitational-wave analyses, including minutes-latency public event candidate alerts and tests of general relativity. All of her essential contributions to LIGO detector calibration proved to be even more valuable with a significantly higher event detection rate in O3 than O2. Dr. Sun will receive a $1,000 prize and will present an invited colloquium at one of the LIGO Laboratory sites (LIGO-Hanford, LIGO-Livingston, Caltech, or MIT) to share her achievements with LIGO Laboratory members. She will receive an award certificate at the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration meeting in March 2020. Read more about the LIGO Laboratory Award for Excellence in Detector Characterization and Calibration.
Following on from the above story...Perhaps things are not as bad as they sound when listening to the carryings ons and whinges from some on this forum. I hope that some at least take the time to listen and absorb the young, dedicated scientists who we all should appreciate........ https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo20191210 The 9th Episode of the LIGO Documentary Released News Release • December 10, 2019 The 9th episode of Les Guthman's documentary "LIGO: A Discovery that Shook the World", has been released. This episode, titled "aLIGO SNAPS", brings together into one episode all eight of the aLIGO SNAPS -- the short profiles that conclude each episode. The SNAPS are: "Max Isi and Sarah Gossan," "Teresita Ramirez," "Squeezed Light," "First Light," "Janeen Romie," "A New Measure of the Universe," "Barry Barish: The Nobel Book," and "Into the Unknown," in which Stan Whitcomb talks about what will happen when LIGO detects a signal it can't explain. Watch below: Previous episodes Episode 8, LIGO and Beyond (released October 21, 2019) Episodes 6, Movies Made from Numbers and 7, Stockholm (released October 18, 2019) Episodes 4, Inventing LIGO and 5, Advanced LIGO (released October 14, 2019) Episode 3, So Many Staggering Insights about Our Universe (released February 22, 2018) Episode 2, The New Age of Gravitational Wave Astronomy (released August 9, 2017) Episode 1, Mirrors that Hang on Glass Threads (released February 16, 2017)
