In 2017, Barish was awarded theNobel Prize in Physics along withRainer Weiss andKip Thorne "for decisive contributions to theLIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves".[1][2][3][4] He said, "I didn't know if I would succeed. I was afraid I would fail, but because I tried, I had a breakthrough."[5]
He earned aB.A. degree in physics (1957) and aPh.D. degree in experimental high energy physics (1962) at theUniversity of California, Berkeley.[13] He joinedCaltech in 1963 as part of a new experimental effort in particle physics using frontier particle accelerators at the national laboratories. From 1963 to 1966, he was a research fellow, and from 1966 to 1991 an assistant professor, associate professor, and professor of physics. From 1991 to 2005, he became Linde Professor of Physics, and after that Linde Professor of Physics, emeritus.[14] From 1984 to 1996, he was the principal investigator of Caltech High Energy Physics Group.
Firstly, Barish's experiments were performed atFermilab using high-energy neutrino collisions to reveal the quark substructure of the nucleon.[15] Among others, these experiments were the first to observe a current that was weak and neutral, a linchpin of the electroweak unification theories of Salam, Glashow, and Weinberg.[16]
In the 1980s, he directedMACRO, an experiment in a cave inGran Sasso,Italy, that searched for exotic particles calledmagnetic monopoles and also studied penetratingcosmic rays, includingneutrino measurements that provided important confirmatory evidence that neutrinos have mass and oscillate.[17]
In 1991, Barish was named the Maxine and Ronald Linde Professor of Physics at Caltech.
In the early 1990s, he spearheaded GEM (Gammas, Electrons, Muons), an experiment that would have run at theSuperconducting Super Collider which was approved after the former project L* led bySamuel Ting (and Barish as chairman of collaboration board) was rejected by SSC directorRoy Schwitters.[17][18] Barish was GEM spokesperson.
Barish became the principal investigator of theLaser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in 1994 and director in 1997. He led the effort through the approval of funding by the NSF National Science Board in 1994, the construction and commissioning of the LIGO interferometers in Livingston, LA and Hanford, WA in 1997. He created theLIGO Scientific Collaboration, which now numbers more than 1000 collaborators worldwide to carry out the science.
The initial LIGO detectors reached design sensitivity and set many limits on astrophysical sources. The Advanced LIGO proposal was developed while Barish was director, and he has continued to play a leading role in LIGO and Advanced LIGO. Thefirst detection of the merger of two 30 solar mass black holes was made on September 14, 2015.[19] This represented the first direct detection of gravitational waves since they were predicted by Einstein in 1916 and the first ever observation of the merger of a pair of black holes. Barish delivered the first presentation on this discovery to a scientific audience at CERN on February 11, 2016,[20] simultaneously with the public announcement.[21]
From 2001 to 2002, Barish served as co-chair of theHigh Energy Physics Advisory Panel subpanel that developed a long-range plan[22] for U.S. high energy physics. He has chaired the Commission of Particles and Fields and the U.S. Liaison committee to theInternational Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP). In 2002, he chaired the NRC Board of Physics and Astronomy Neutrino Facilities Assessment Committee Report, "Neutrinos and Beyond".
From 2005 to 2013, Barish was director of theGlobal Design Effort[23] for the International Linear Collider (ILC).[24] The ILC is the highest priority future project for particle physics worldwide, as it promises to complement theLarge Hadron Collider atCERN in exploring the TeV energy scale. This ambitious effort is being uniquely coordinated worldwide, representing a major step in international collaborations going from conception to design to implementation for large scale projects in physics.
In 2016, Barish received theEnrico Fermi Prize "for his fundamental contributions to the formation of the LIGO and LIGO-Virgo scientific collaborations and for his role in addressing challenging technological and scientific aspects whose solution led to the first detection of gravitational waves".[29]
Barish was a recipient of the 2016Smithsonian magazine's American Ingenuity Award in the Physical Science category.[30]
Barish was awarded the 2017Henry Draper Medal from theNational Academy of Sciences "for his visionary and pivotal leadership role, scientific guidance, and novel instrument design during the development of LIGO that were crucial for LIGO's discovery of gravitational waves from colliding black holes, thus directly validating Einstein's 100-year-old prediction of gravitational waves and ushering a new field of gravitational wave astronomy."[31]
Barish was a recipient of the 2017 Giuseppe and Vanna Cocconi Prize[32] of theEuropean Physical Society for his "pioneering and leading role in the LIGO observatory that led to the direct detection of gravitational waves, opening a new window to the Universe."
Barish was a recipient of the 2017 Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award[34] for his leadership in the construction and initial operations of LIGO, the creation of the international LIGO Scientific Collaboration, and for the successful conversion of LIGO from small science executed by a few research groups into big science that involved large collaborations and major infrastructures, which eventually enabled gravitational-wave detection" (jointly withKip Thorne andRainer Weiss).[35]
In 2018, he was conferred the Honorary Degree Doctor Honoris Causa ofSofia University St. Kliment Ohridski.[38]
In 2023, he was awarded the inaugural the Copernicus Prize, bestowed by the government of Poland on "those who made exceptional contributions to the development of world science."[39]
In 2023, he was awarded theNational Medal of Science[8] for "exemplary service to science, including groundbreaking research on sub-atomic particles. His leadership of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory led to the first detection of gravitational waves from merging black holes, confirming a key part of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. He has broadened our understanding of the universe and our Nation's sense of wonder and discovery."[40]
Barish has been elected to and held fellowship at the following organizations:
Barry Barish is married to Samoan Barish. They have two children, Stephanie Barish andKenneth Barish, professor and chair of Physics & Astronomy atUniversity of California, Riverside,[42] and three grandchildren, Milo Barish Chamberlin, Thea Chamberlin, and Ariel Barish.[43]
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