The Man Behind India’s Role in Cracking the Gravitational Waves
This man played a big role in making sure India was put on the global map on the subject of gravitational waves.
Indian scientists have played a crucial role in the path-breaking project to detect gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time, which Albert Einstein had predicted a century ago.
The Institute of Plasma Research (IPR), Gandhinagar and Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) from Pune played a big role in achieving this feat. And the man behind IUCAA is Sanjeev Dhurandhar, Professor Emeritus, IUCAA.
The announcement of the detection of gravitational waves was made simultaneously at IUCAA, Pune, and by scientists in Washington DC, USA.
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) project operates three gravitational-wave (GW) detectors, two of which are in the USA. The proposed LIGO-India project aims to move the Advanced LIGO detector from Hanford (in the US) to India.
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