I am a physicist doing research related to gravitational
waves. These waves are "ripples" of space-time curvature,
predicted by Albert
Einstein in 1915. Up till now, these waves have not
been detected directly --- there exist only indirect
evidence. However, many scientists (including myself)
believe that they will soon be detected.
Moreover, in the decades to come, we are going to build
detectors with higher sensitivity, and use gravitational
waves as a routine tool to probe the universe and to
explore fundamental physics.
In our effort to build better detectors, we encounter the
quantization of light (first discovered by Max Planck), as well as macroscopic
objects.
My
research group at the Max-Planck-Institut fuer
Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut) is
supported by the Alexander von
Humboldt Foundation, through the
Sofja Kovalevskaja Programme.
I am also a Visiting
Associate at the Theoretical Astrophysics
Group of the California Institute of
Technology, in Pasadena, California. I will move there
in November 2007, as an Assistant Professor.
[My Caltech Homepage]