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Bruce Allen (physicist)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bruce Allen
Bruce Allen in 2016
Born (1959-05-11) May 11, 1959 (age 65)
Education
Scientific career
Academic advisorsStephen Hawking, Rainer Weiss
Doctoral studentsRobert R. Caldwell

Bruce Allen (born May 11, 1959) is an American physicist and director of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Hannover Germany and leader of the Einstein@Home project for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. He is also a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and the initiator / project leader of smartmontools hard disk utility.[1]

He has done research work on models of the very early universe (inflationary cosmology, cosmic strings). Allen currently leads a research group working on the detection of gravitational waves. In this role, he was one of the first scientists to become aware of the initial detection of GW150914 at LIGO, in September 2015.[2] Allen's research work has been funded by the US National Science Foundation since 1987.

Education and positions

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Visiting appointments

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  • 1994 Six months, Isaac Newton Mathematical Institute, Cambridge, England
  • 1995 Six months, Caltech Relativity Group
  • 1997 One year, Caltech LIGO Project
  • 1999 Six months, Caltech LIGO Project
  • 2000–2005 Few months/year, Albert Einstein Institute, Potsdam, Germany

Awards

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  • 1980 Phi Beta Kappa, MIT
  • 1980–85 NSF Graduate Fellowship (declined)
  • 1980–82 Churchill Scholarship (declined)
  • 1980–82 Marshall Scholar, University of Cambridge
  • 1981 Knight Prize, University of Cambridge
  • 1990 First Prize, Gravity Research Foundation
  • 1997 University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, Graduate School Research Award
  • 2002–03 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
  • 2004 Elected Fellow, Institute of Physics (UK)
  • 2005 Elected Fellow, American Physical Society
  • 2016 Lower Saxony State Prize 2016 (shared with Buonanno and Danzmann)[3]
  • 2016 Gruber Cosmology Prize (as part of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration)
  • 2016 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (as part of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration)
  • 2017 Einstein Medal (as part of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration)
  • 2017 Princess of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research (as part of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration)

References

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  1. ^ "Team – smartmontools". smartmontools. December 23, 2003. Retrieved July 16, 2023.
  2. ^ Cho, Adrian (February 11, 2016). "Here's the first person to spot those gravitational waves". Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). doi:10.1126/science.aaf4039. ISSN 0036-8075.
  3. ^ "Niedersächsischer Staatspreis 2016 geht an Physiker aus Hannover". Nds. Staatskanzlei (in German). May 31, 2016. Retrieved July 16, 2023.
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