Gabriela González Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
05/02/2017
The National Academy of Sciences recognized three LIGO scientists with the 2017 NAS
Award for Scientific Discovery on April 30 including Gabriela González, professor
of physics and astronomy at LSU. Photo Credit: National Academy of Sciences
BATON ROUGE – The National Academy of Sciences announced today that LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy Professor Gabriela González has been elected as a member to the academy. González is one of the 84 new members recognized for her distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. She is an experimental physicist with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, or LIGO, who contributed to the detection of gravitational waves in 2015 predicted by Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity.
González’s research and work as the former spokesperson for the 1,000-member international
LIGO Scientific Collaboration opened a new window of discovery to the cosmos. This
milestone discovery was recognized as the 2016 Breakthrough of the Year by Science magazine. As an experimental physicist, González’s current research involves
the reduction and characterization of noise to enhance the laser interferometers’
sensitivity to detect gravitational waves, calibrate the detectors and analyze data.
She has been recognized as one of the “Ten People Who Mattered” by the scientific journal Nature; a recipient of the 2017 National Academy of Sciences Award for Scientific Discovery; a newly elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and Scientist of the Year by Great Minds in STEM.
Left to right: David H. Reitze, executive director, LIGO Laboratory at California
Institute of Technology and a professor of physics at the University of Florida, Gabriela
González, professor of physics and astronomy at LSU and Paul Saulson, Martin A. Pomerantz
'37 professor of physics at Syracuse University.Photo Credit: National Academy of Sciences
González was born and raised in Córdoba, Argentina. She studied physics at the University
of Córdoba, where she earned a college physics degree. She came to the U.S. to pursue
and attain her Ph.D. from Syracuse University. Her doctorate focused on Brownian motion
and gravitational waves. Her work took her to universities across the U.S. including
MIT and Penn State. She joined the faculty at LSU in 2001. She was the longest serving
elected spokesperson for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration — a position she held for
six years.
She is one of four LSU faculty who have been members of the National Academy of Sciences.
LSU Professor of Physics E. Ward Plummer is an active member of the academy. He was elected in 2006 while on the faculty at
the University of Tennessee. In 1983, the late Pennington Biomedical Research Center
Professor in physiology and pharmacology S. M. McCann was elected to the academy. In 1959, the founding director of the LSU Coastal Studies
Institute Richard Russell was elected to the academy.
In addition to the 84 newly elected members of the National Academy of Sciences, 21
foreign associates have been newly elected. Foreign associates are nonvoting members
of the academy with citizenship outside the U.S. The total number of foreign associates
is 475. The total number of active National Academy of Sciences members is 2,290 including
those elected today.
Additional Link:
National Academy of Sciences Members and Foreign Associates Elected http://www.nasonline.org/news-and-multimedia/news/may-2-2017-NAS-Election.html
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Contact Alison Satake
LSU Media Relations
225-578-3870
asatake@lsu.edu
Mimi LaValle
LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy
225-439-5633
mlavall@lsu.edu