UF physics professor to be nationally recognized

A UF scientist has won an award for discovering something Albert Einstein predicted more than 100 years ago.

David Reitze, a physics professor at UF, won the 2017 National Academy of Sciences Award for Scientific Discovery for his work in helping discover gravitational waves, which are ripples in space predicted by Einstein in 1916, he said.

The award ceremony will take place in Washington, D.C., on April 20.

The award recognizes Reitze’s leadership along with two scientists who work for Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, he said. The group is a collaboration of more than 1,100 scientists who study gravitational waves.

In 2016, the group discovered the gravitational waves by observing two black holes that collided.

“We’re sort of doing what Galileo did over 400 years ago when he turned his telescope to the sky,” Reitze said. “We have a new way of studying some of the most violent events in the universe.”

About a billion light-years away from Earth, the two black holes orbited around each other about 20 times each second before colliding.

Reitze said he felt honored and excited when he received the email Jan. 6 from the national organization telling him he won the award.

“I was amazed actually. I forwarded the email to my wife with eight exclamation points,” he said.

His colleague, David Tanner, a UF physics professor, helped Reitze and the LIGO group construct parts for the observatory.

Tanner said Reitze is deserving of the award for his hard work and people skills.

He said if Reitze sets his mind to something, he’ll make it happen.

Tanner said last year’s discovery was the last step in confirming Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity and has helped to find previously undetectable objects in space.

“It’s an important discovery in the world of science,” Tanner said. “Probably the most important discovery of 2016 and maybe even the whole decade.”

David Reitze