PHYSICIST

Rainer Weiss

1932 - Today

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Rainer "Rai" Weiss ( WYSSE, German: [vaɪs]; born September 29, 1932) is a German-American physicist, known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. He is a professor of physics emeritus at MIT and an adjunct professor at LSU. He is best known for inventing the laser interferometric technique which is the basic operation of LIGO. He was Chair of the COBE Science Working Group. In 2017, Weiss was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Kip Thorne and Barry Barish, "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves". Weiss has helped realize a number of challenging experimental tests of fundamental physics. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Rainer Weiss is the 308th most popular physicist (down from 259th in 2019), the 1,138th most popular biography from Germany (down from 903rd in 2019) and the 43rd most popular German Physicist.

Rainer Weiss is most famous for being a part of the team that won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017. Weiss was one of three people who led the construction of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) which detected gravitational waves for the first time in 2016.

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Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Rainer Weiss ranks 308 out of 851. Before him are Friedrich Hund, Henry Way Kendall, Yuri Oganessian, Anna Mani, Freeman Dyson, and Alain Aspect. After him are Andre Geim, Otto Robert Frisch, Dennis W. Sciama, Christoph Scheiner, Daniel C. Tsui, and John Vincent Atanasoff.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1932, Rainer Weiss ranks 81. Before him are Vitold Fokin, Thomas Klestil, Tavo Burat, Corry Brokken, Sonny Liston, and Tony Brooks. After him are Gyula Horn, Harriet Andersson, Francis Arinze, Dudley R. Herschbach, Jean-Jacques Sempé, and Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani.

Others Born in 1932

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In Germany

Among people born in Germany, Rainer Weiss ranks 1,138 out of 7,253. Before him are Princess Alexandrine of Prussia (1803), Georg Friedrich Grotefend (1775), Christian Thomasius (1655), Charles, Grand Duke of Baden (1786), Karl Richard Lepsius (1810), and Paul Langerhans (1847). After him are Louis II, Duke of Bavaria (1229), Marie of Cleves, Duchess of Orléans (1426), Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger (1775), Georg-Hans Reinhardt (1887), Oskar Lafontaine (1943), and Lale Andersen (1905).

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Among PHYSICISTS In Germany

Among physicists born in Germany, Rainer Weiss ranks 43. Before him are Klaus Fuchs (1911), Jack Steinberger (1921), Carl von Linde (1842), Klaus Hasselmann (1931), Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (1912), and Friedrich Hund (1896). After him are Christoph Scheiner (1575), Ludwig Prandtl (1875), John B. Goodenough (1922), Walther Gerlach (1889), Pascual Jordan (1902), and Franz Aepinus (1724).

German born Physicists

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