GWIC awards a yearly prize recognizing an outstanding Ph.D. thesis in the field of gravitational waves, the GWIC-Braccini Thesis Prize.
The Gravitational Wave International Committee and the Friends of Stefano Braccini are pleased to announce the yearly prize recognising an outstanding Ph.D. thesis in the field of gravitational waves, the GWIC-Braccini Thesis Prize. Nominations for the 2023 GWIC-Braccini Thesis Prize are now open.
Members of the gravitational-wave community are invited to nominate students who have performed notable research on any aspect of gravitational-wave science. Theses will be judged on (i) originality and creativity of the research, (ii) importance to the field of gravitational waves and gravitational wave detection, broadly interpreted, and (iii) clarity of presentation. The winner will receive a certificate of recognition and a prize of US $1,000. We aim to award the 2023 prizes at the LISA Symposium meeting in July 2024.
Eligibility: In this cycle, the prize will be awarded on a calendar year basis for 2023. The theses should have been accepted by their institutions between January 1, 2023 and 31 December 31, 2023. It is expected that many of the nominations will come from the member projects of GWIC, but this is not a requirement. Nominated theses may be in any language. A committee selected from the gravitational-wave community will evaluate the nominations and select the winner. The selection committee will make all determinations about eligibility.
Nominations: Nominations should be submitted by February 29, 2024. The nomination package consists of (i) the thesis, (ii) a letter of nomination, preferably from the thesis advisor, (iii) a supporting letter from another scientist familiar with the work, and (iv) a single-page abstract of the thesis written by the nominee. The nomination and supporting letters should describe the importance and novelty of the research and the student's particular contribution.
Electronic submission of the thesis and letters is strongly preferred, with the thesis, abstract and the letters in separate pdf files (four files in total). Electronic copies of the nomination materials may be sent to Michele Vallisneri. All submissions will be acknowledged; if an acknowledgement is not received shortly after the deadline, please contact Michele. Please also provide a contact email address, and current institution for the nominee in the nomination letter.
If electronic submission is impossible, please contact Michele for instructions concerning paper submission, or for any other concerns or queries.
Eleonora Polini (Universite Savoie Mont Blanc)
"Broadband Quantum Noise Reduction in AdV+: From Frequency-Dependent Squeezing Implementation to Detection Losses and Scattered Light Mitigation"
Kaze W.K. Wong (JHU)
"Building New Tools for Gravitational Wave Astronomy"
Marina Trad Nery (Max-Planck Institut für Gravitationsphysik, Leibniz Universität Hannover)
"Laser Power Stabilization via Radiation Pressure"
Nancy Aggarwal (MIT)
"A Room Temperature Optomechanical Squeezer"
Jonathan D. Cripe (Louisiana State University)
"Broadband Measurement and Reduction of Quantum Radiation Pressure Noise in the Audio Band"
Hector Okada da Silva (University of Mississippi)
"Compact Objects in Relativistic Theories of Gravity"
Eric Oelker (MIT), winner of the 2016 GWIC Thesis Prize
"Squeezed States for Advanced Gravitational Wave Detectors"
Davide Gerosa (University of Cambridge), winner of the 2016 Braccini Thesis Prize
"Source modelling at the dawn of gravitational-wave astronomy"
Denis Martynov (Caltech), winner of the 2015 GWIC Thesis Prize
"Lock Acquisition and Sensitivity Analysis of Advanced LIGO Interferometers"
Vikram Ravi (University of Melbourne), winner of the 2015 Braccini Thesis Prize
"Evincing the histories of the cosmic supermassive black hole and galaxy populations with gravitational waves"
Leo Singer (Caltech), winner of the 2014 GWIC Thesis Prize
"The needle in the 100 deg2 haystack: The hunt for binary neutron star mergers with LIGO and Palomar Transient Factory"
Yan Wang (Leibniz University of Hannover), winner of the 2014 Braccini Thesis Prize
"On inter-satellite laser ranging, clock synchronization and gravitational wave data analysis"
Sheon Chua (ANU), winner of the 2013 GWIC Thesis Prize
"Quantum Enhancement of a 4km Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Detector"
Tjonnie Li (Vrije University Amsterdam), winner of the 2013 Braccini Thesis Prize
"Extracting Physics from Gravitational Waves: Testing the Strong-field Dynamics of General Relativity and Inferring the Large-scale Structure of the Universe"
Paul Fulda (University of Birmingham), winner of the 2012 GWIC Thesis Prize
Precision Interferometry in a New Shape: Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Modes for Gravitational Wave Detection
Kiwamu Izumi (University of Tokyo), co-winner of the 2012 Braccini Thesis Prize
Multi-Color Interferometry for Lock Acquisition of Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Detectors
Vivien Raymond (Northwestern University), co-winner of the 2012 Braccini Thesis Prize
Parameter Estimation Using Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods for Gravitational Waves from Spinning Inspirals of Compact Objects
Rutger van Haasteren (University of Leiden), winner of the 2011 GWIC Thesis Prize
Gravitational Wave detection and data analysis for Pulsar Timing Arrays
Aleksandr Khalaidovski (Albert Einstein Institute and Leibniz University of Hannover), winner of the 2011 Stefano Braccini Thesis Prize
Beyond the Quantum Limit--A Squeezed-Light Laser in GEO600
Haixing Miao (University of Western Australia), winner of the 2010 GWIC Thesis Prize
Exploring Macroscopic Quantum Mechanics in Optomechanical Devices
Holger Pletsch (Albert Einstein Institute and Leibniz University of Hannover), winner of the 2009 GWIC Thesis Prize
Data Analysis for Continuous Gravitational Waves: Deepest All-Sky Surveys
Henning Vahlbruch (Albert Einstein Institute and Leibniz University of Hannover), winner of the 2008 GWIC Thesis Prize
Squeezed Light for Gravitational Wave Astronomy
Keisuke Goda (MIT), winner of the 2007 GWIC Thesis Prize
Development of Techniques for Quantum-Enhanced Laser-Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Detectors
Yoichi Aso (University of Tokyo)
Active Vibration Isolation for a Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detector using a Suspension Point Interferometer
Note, the gravitational wave thesis prize was started initially by LIGO as a biannual prize, limited to students of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. In 2006, the thesis prize was adopted by GWIC, renamed, converted to an annual prize, and opened to the broader community. In this transition year, theses completed between 1 July 2005 and 31 December 2006 were eligible for the 2006 Prize.
Rana Adhikari (MIT)
Sensitivity and Noise Analysis of 4 km Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Antennae
Note, the gravitational wave thesis prize was started initially by LIGO as a biannual prize, limited to students of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. The first award covered the period from 1 July 2003 to 30 June 2005. In 2006, the thesis prize was adopted by GWIC, renamed, converted to an annual prize, and opened to the broader community.