About Samaya Nissanke (NL)
September 14, 2015 will go into the history books as the day we were finally able to detect the illusive gravitational waves, who’s existence was predicted exactly a century ago by Albert Einstein. Their discovery gives astronomers a new window to look at the universe. Gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime, are generated in the most exotic and strange locations in nature, such as at the beginning of time.
One of the leading figures in this emerging field of gravitational wave astrophysics is Dr. Samaya Nissanke. Before moving to Radboud University, Netherlands, she studied and worked at prestigious universities such as Caltech, Cambridge, and the University of Paris. With her research, she aims to understand the complex physics in the mergers of black holes and white dwarfs, which are amongst some of the most violent and extreme gravity events in the universe! This will be a talk that will generate as many ripples as her study objects do.