Gabriela González

Dr González has had a significant impact on the field of gravitation wave physics through her many important technical and scientific contributions to the Laser Interferometric Gravitation Wave Observatory (LIGO), and for communicating the excitement of this field to the scientific community and the public. Her research interest is the detection of gravitational waves with sensitive instruments such as the one in the LIGO Livingston Observatory, in Livingston, LA. She was a founding member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, and has participated intensely in the commissioning of the detector at the Livingston Observatory. She and her group are very involved in the instrumental characterization and calibration of the data collected in the data-taking Science Runs performed by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC), as well as in the analysis of the data being taken with the LIGO detectors. The LSC is an international organization with more than 1000 members in 15 countries. She was elected spokesperson of the LSC in 2011, and re-elected in 2013. During her tenure as spokesperson LIGO made the first ever direct detection of gravitational waves.