THE ARC CENTRE of excellence FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DISCOVERY
A new window of discovery.
A new age of gravitational wave astronomy.
A new age of gravitational wave astronomy.
One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein produced one of the greatest intellectual achievements in physics, the theory of general relativity. In general relativity, spacetime is dynamic. It can be warped into a black hole. Accelerating masses create ripples in spacetime known as gravitational waves (GWs) that carry energy away from the source. Recent advances in detector sensitivity led to the first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015. This was a landmark achievement in human discovery and heralded the birth of the new field of gravitational wave astronomy. This was followed in 2017 by the first observations of the collision of two neutron-stars. The accompanying explosion was subsequently seen in follow-up observations by telescopes across the globe, and ushered in a new era of multi-messenger astronomy.
The mission of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) is to capitalise on the historic first detections of gravitational waves to understand the extreme physics of black holes and warped spacetime, and to inspire the next generation of Australian scientists and engineers through this new window on the Universe.
OzGrav is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence funding scheme, and is a partnership between Swinburne University (host of OzGrav headquarters), the Australian National University, Monash University, University of Adelaide, University of Melbourne, and University of Western Australia, along with other collaborating organisations in Australia and overseas.
INSTRUMENTATION
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DATA
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ASTROPHYSICS
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OzGrav scientists and engineers are developing state of the art instrumentation for Advanced LIGO, the Square Kilometre Array and the next generation of gravitational wave detectors |
OzGrav researchers sift through Petabytes of data to search for gravitational waves from black holes and neutron stars. |
OzGrav astrophysicists use the gravitational waves detected by advanced LIGO and the SKA to probe the Universe in new and unique ways. |
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS
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May 2023: Professor Matthew Bailes, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery and Professor at Swinburne University of Technology, has won the prestigious Shaw Prize in Astronomy. This esteemed award, often seen as a precursor to the Nobel Prize, recognises Professor Bailes' contributions to the discovery of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) alongside Professor Duncan Lorimer from West Virginia University and Professor Maura McLaughlin. They share in a $US1.2 million ($1.84 million) prize. Their groundbreaking research, conducted at CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope, Murriyang, unveiled an extraordinary pulse of energy a trillion times brighter than anything seen in our galaxy, from a billion light-years away. Read more.
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Mar 2023: Congratulations to Distinguished Professor Susan Scott (ANU) on being awarded the Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal in 2023. Professor Scott is an internationally recognised mathematical physicist who has made fundamental advances in our understanding of the fabric of space-time in general relativity, and in gravitational wave science. Read more.
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Nov 2022: The ARC has awarded $35M to support a further seven years of funding of OzGrav, with an expanded, diverse leadership team and an ambitious new science program. Congratulations to Director Matthew Bailes and the team! Read more.
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Sep 2022: Congratulations to our OzGrav DECRA winners Dr Katie Auchettl (University of Melbourne), Dr Dan Brown (University of Adelaide) and Dr Anais Möller (Swinburne University of Technology). Read about their projects.
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May 2022: OzGrav Director Prof Matthew Bailes has been elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
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2021: OzGrav is awarded a Silver Pleiades Award by the ASA, for our continued commitment to promoting equity and inclusion. The Silver Pleiades recognises organisations with a sustained record of at least two years monitoring and improving the working environment. It also recognises leadership in promoting positive actions as examples of best practice to other organisations in the astronomy community.
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2021: Despite working around COVID-19 restrictions, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) successfully passes the Mid Term Review with the ARC. Looking forward to the science we uncover during the second half of the Centre.
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28 October 2020: We are delighted to congratulate OzGrav members Emeritus Professor David Blair (UWA), Professor David McClelland (ANU), Professor Susan Scott and Professor Peter Veitch, on receiving the 2020 Prime Minister's Prize for Science, for their work leading to the first direct detection of a gravitational wave. This prestigious award is recognition for the many years of dedicated work that led to this ground-breaking discovery, which continues to yield new discoveries and scientific advances for Australia
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