The role of the OzGrav Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) is to provide the Centre with independent scientific expertise, advice, and experience from established national centres and leading international laboratories regarding the OzGrav Research Program. The SAC is chaired by Professor Barry Barish, a Nobel Laureate and international leader in the search for gravitational waves.
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Prof Barry Barish (Chair)
Linde Professor of Physics, Emeritus, California Institute of Technology Prof Barish is a leading expert on gravitational waves who jointly won the 2017 Nobel Prize for the discovery of gravitational waves. His leadership and advocacy to the National Science Foundation about the need for LIGO played a key role in securing the funds for its construction. |
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Dr Joan Centrella
Executive in Residence , West Virginia University Dr Centrella is an astrophysicist who builds numerical laboratories to probe the depths of extreme gravity and the early history of the universe. She currently chairs the Advisory Board for the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) |
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Dr Stuart Anderson
Research Manager - LIGO, California Institute of Technology Dr Anderson used the Arecibo radio telescope to reveal that globular clusters contained vast numbers of radio pulsars including a relativistic binary pulsar that closely resembled the Hulse-Taylor pulsar as part of his PhD from Caltech. Since then he has been one of the key players in establishing and maintaining the clusters and pipelines that have discovered gravitational waves. |
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Prof Selma E de Mink
Scientific director, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Germany. Prof de Mink is an astrophysicist and expert in the progenitors of gravitational waves. De Mink’s work has been recognized with the award of an ERC starting grant (2017), the MERAC prize in theoretical astrophysics (2017), the Pastoor Schmeitsprijs (2019) and member of the Young Dutch Academy of Sciences. |
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Prof Matthew Evans
MIT and LIGO Professor Evans' research is focused on gravitational wave detector instrument science, aimed at improving the sensitivity in existing detectors and designing future detectors. In addition to his work on the Advanced LIGO detectors in Hanford, WA and Livingston, LA, in the labs at MIT Professor Evans explores the physical processes that set fundamental limits on the sensitivity of future gravitational wave detectors |
