Dr. Nergis Mavalvala

 

    Dr. Nergis Mavalvala grew up in Pakistan. She went to Wellesley college for undergrad where she majored in physics and astronomy. Later she went to MIT for graduate school. She worked with Dr. Weiss as part of LIGO and has continued to do so for nearly three decades. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory uses the physical properties of light and space to detect gravitational waves. As a grad student she developed technologies for the optics and optical sensing side of LIGO. Then as a postdoc and faculty member of MIT she spent years building and making LIGO work. In 2015 LIGO sensed the undulations caused by gravitational waves from two black holes colliding 1.3 billion light years away which confirmed the mathematical theory of gravitational waves. Dr. Mavalvala had confidence in gravitational waves and LIGO well before the signal was detected and worked to problem solve quantum mechanics that limited the sensitivity of LIGO. Luckily in 2015 the astrophysical signals were detectable by LIGO. 

    Today Dr. Mavalvala works on quantum mechanics at the macroscopic scale of LIGO which has 40 kg mirrors. The instrument recognizes when the mirrors are moved by quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. LIGO senses the gravitational waves because there are electromagnets on the back of the mirrors which apply equal and opposite force against the disturbance so that the mirror can only move 10^-20 meters which is smaller than 1/10,000 the size of a proton. The energy remaining is equated with temperature and many more complicated steps that result in sensing a gravitational wave. 

    Dr. Mavalvala enjoys her work at LIGO and her role as dean of the school of science at MIT. She wants developing scientists to recognize the social and ethical responsibility and impact of their inventions and hopes this awareness becomes ingrained into the core of educational science and research. Dr. Mavalvala was the recipient of the 2010 Macarthur "genius grant" fellowship, and she was named the LGBTQ scientist of the year by the professional society Out to Innovate. 

Sources:

https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.4.20221129a/full/ 

https://physics.mit.edu/faculty/nergis-mavalvala/

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/what-is-ligo