Author: hp33

Several UWB students from the gravitational wave astronomy research group (in collaboration with the UWB Office of Research) staffed a table at the Pacific Science Center’s Curiosity Expo throughout the weekend of August 17-18. In keeping with the event’s theme of “games,” several laptops were set up with GWA-themed activities that attendees could explore while the students offered explanations of the science behind the activities and answered questions.

Over 5,000 guests attended the high-energy weekend at PacSci, and there are more to come! There are five more Curiosity Expo events scheduled for the coming months; for more information see the Pacific Science Center’s website.

Hannah Preisinger (your humble blogger) has had a researched editorial on the subject of cosmic strings published in UW Bothell’s Campus Research and Observational Writings (CROW), the university’s peer-reviewed research journal. This is the first astronomy-related piece of research that the CROW has published, and has since led to Hannah conducting additional research on cosmic strings via the Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium.

Read the full paper here or find out more about the CROW here.

July 5th marked the annual International Day of LGBTQ+ People in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths! Our research wouldn’t be possible without the contributions of many diverse peoples. Find out more about Pride in STEM and check out LIGO’s Twitter post from the day itself!

UWB Physics and Chemistry students received end of year awards to commemorate academic achievement on June 7, including a GWA research group student who received the Physical Science Division Chair’s Summer Undergraduate Research Award to fund ongoing research over the summer. Congratulations! Read more about the awards here.

A new article published by the Young Minds division of Frontiers (an Open Access science publication) explains gravitational waves and NANOGrav science for younger audiences. Dr. Key edited the article, which was written by Stephen R. Taylor of CalTech. Read the article here – and don’t forget to share it with the budding scientists in your life!

Kyle Gersbach, Andrew Clark, Steven Lusby, and Wynter Broussard are the newest certified members of NANOGrav’s SPOT (Space Public Outreach Team)! They will join other members of the research group and beyond in educating the public on the wonders of gravitational wave astronomy, particularly K-12 audiences. Congratulations!

The Multimessenger Diversity Network (MDN) – a new initiative founded by LIGO and fellow research networks VERITAS, LSST, and IceCube – had its first face-to-face meeting on March 12th at the University of Wisconsin – Madison’s IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center. Dr. Key represented LIGO at the event, which included presentations, training, and a great deal of fruitful discussion about how to include more underrepresented communities in multi-messenger astrophysics research. The MDN will continue to meet virtually in the coming months and has begun plans for a white paper outlining a long-term strategy for the group.

See IceCube’s article on the event for more information on the MDN and its founding members.

Dr. Paola Rodríguez Hidalgo, the newest addition to UW Bothell’s Physics department faculty, will be presenting a Pub Night Talk for members of the UWB community – and the general public – on Tuesday, March 26, at 7pm. Her talk, entitled “Quasars: Supermassive Black Holes and Galaxies Far, Far Away…” will take place at McMenamin’s Anderson School location in downtown Bothell. Click here for more information on Dr. Rodríguez Hidalgo’s talk!

The UW Bothell Women in Physics and Astronomy Club (WiPA) has received a monetary grant from the American Physics Society! The grant was awarded by APS’s Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP), and provides support to selected undergraduate groups geared towards recruiting and supporting women students of physics.

Read more about the award here, and be sure to check out the WiPA club and consider attending a meeting!

December brings exciting news from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration!

Four new black hole mergers have been officially announced – including GW170729, the largest and most distant GW source yet observed – and the full results of LIGO/Virgo’s first two observing runs have been organized and released in an official catalog. This catalog contains details on the ten binary black hole mergers and one binary neutron star merger that have been detected thus far.

More information can be found in the LSC Press Release, and the new catalog can be viewed here.