Stanley E. Whitcomb

Stanley Ernest Whitcomb (born January 23, 1951 in Denver)[1] is an American physicist and was the Chief Scientist at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project when the first direct detection of gravitational waves was made in September 2015.[2]

Education and career

In 1973 Whitcomb graduated with a bachelor's degree physics from Caltech. After a year at the University of Cambridge, he became a physics graduate student at the University of Chicago, where he graduated with a Ph.D. in 1980. His dissertation, supervised by Roger Hildebrand, dealt with astronomy in the far infrared and sub-millimeter wavelengths. In the autumn of 1980 Whitcomb became an assistant professor at Caltech.[3]

Whitcomb joined the gravitational wave effort in 1980 and participated in the early experimental work that proved the feasibility of making such precise measurements. He led the team within the LIGO Laboratory that designed and commissioned the first generation full-scale LIGO detectors. At one point or another, he was involved in virtually every aspect of LIGO’s work.[4]

Kip Thorne and Ronald Drever were the earliest leaders of Caltech's pioneering gravitational wave program. Whitcomb, Siu Au Lee, Robert E. Spero, and Mark Hereld were among the program's first five recruits. In 1985 Whitcomb moved to Northrop Corporation as a research engineer in the electronics division and then became a project manager. From 1989 to 1991 he was a senior system specialist at Loral Electro-Optical Systems. In 1991 he returned to LIGO as deputy director under Director Rochus "Robbie" Vogt, who in 1987 had taken charge of the joint LIGO Project between MIT (where Rainer Weiss worked on laser interferometers) and Caltech.[5] In September 2015 Whitcomb officially retired from LIGO but continued to make various contributions to the project.[6]

In 2002 Whitcomb was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).[7] He was elected as a Fellow of the The Optical Society (OSA) in 2012.[8] He has received several awards.[6][3] He received, jointly with Barry Barish, the Henry Draper Medal in 2017.[4]

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References
  1. biographical information according to American Men and Women of Science, Thomson Gale 2004
  2. "Whitcomb, Stanley E. Interview by Heidi Aspaturian. Pasadena, California, April 24, May 8 and 22, June 5 and 19, 2017". Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology.
  3. "2019 Richard A. Isaacson Award in Gravitational-Wave Science Recipient, Stanley E. Whitcomb, LIGO Laboratory". APS Physics.
  4. "2017 Henry Draper Medal". National Academy of Sciences.
  5. "Whitcomb, Stanley. Interview by Shirley K. Cohen. Pasadena, California, March 7 and 14, 1997". Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives.
  6. "C.E.K. Mees Medal awarded to Stanley Whitcomb". LIGO news. August 20, 2018.
  7. "APS Fellow Archive". APS Physics.
  8. "Stanley E. Whitcomb". OSA Living History.
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