LIGO Scientific Collaboration wins Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), an international group of scientists that includes Georgia Tech researchers, is being recognized for its recent work confirming the existence of gravitational waves. The Princess of Asturias Foundation, established by Spain's monarchy to celebrate worldwide achievement in the arts and sciences, has announced that LIGO and its founders/principal investigators will receive the Princess of Asturias Award for Science and Technical Achievement during ceremonies in October. The award puts LIGO in good company; previous winners include primatologist Jane Goodall, human genome pioneer Craig Venter, Internet founding fathers Vinton Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee, and physicist Peter Higgs (of Higgs boson fame.) Laura Cadonati, School of Physics associate professor, is the deputy spokesperson for LIGO.