Renowned physicist to speak at University of New Orleans

Scientist Joseph Giaime will be the keynote speaker during Einstein Week at the University of New Orleans Department of Physics.

The lecture, "Hearing Black Holes Collide in Louisiana: LIGO's Breakthrough detection of Gravitational Waves," will be held at 7 p.m., April 1 in the Senator Theodore M. Hickey ballroom. It is free and open to the public.

Giaime, the head at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory detector in Livingston, Louisiana, is part of the team that proved Einstein's theory of general relativity when they detected gravitational waves from the collision of two black holes a billion light years from earth.

Having earned his Ph.D. at MIT, Giaime worked at a physical science research institute on the University of Colorado campus. He currently serves as a professor of physics and astronomy at Louisiana State University;  and, in 2009, he was elected for the American Physical Society's fellowship for his gravitational wave discoveries.

Giaime's lecture will be aimed a general audience, and will be presented on behalf of the UNO Department of Physics and the Physics Club.