Gabriela González

Gabriela Ines González, (born 24 February 1965[2]) is a professor of physics and astronomy at the Louisiana State University and was the spokesperson for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration from March 2011 until March 2017.[3]

Gabriela González
González in July 2018
Born (1965-02-24) 24 February 1965
Córdoba, Argentina
NationalityArgentine[1]
Alma materSyracuse University
National University of Córdoba
Known forGravitational-wave detectors
AwardsFellow of the Institute of Physics (2004)
Edward A. Bouchet Award (2007)
Fellow of the American Physical Society (2007)
Bruno Rossi Prize (2017)
Petrie Prize Lecture (2019)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
InstitutionsMIT
Pennsylvania State University
Louisiana State University
ThesisBrownian motion of a torsion pendulum damped by internal friction (1995)
Doctoral advisorPeter Saulson
Websitewww.lsu.edu/physics/people/faculty/gonzalez.php

Biography

Gabriela González was born on February 24, 1965, in Córdoba, Argentina. She is the daughter of Dora Trembinsky, a professor of mathematics, and Pedro González, a doctor in Economic Sciences.[4] González completed her primary school studies at the Colegio Luterano Concordia in the city of Córdoba, and her secondary school studies at the Instituto Manuel Lucero. An avid student, González received exemplary grades at school and even had the ability to quickly solve equations in her head.[4]

González attended university at the National University of Córdoba, which she graduated from with a Bachelor's of Science in Physics in 1988.[5][6][7] According to González, she began studying physics because she thought of it as a way to answer all of the pressing questions that humanity was faced with. In the end, however, she realized that physics does not answer all these questions but rather face us a species with more.

One year following this, she moved to the United States to study at the Syracuse University, and under the tutelage of Peter Sawlson obtained her doctorate in Physics in 1995. She began a postdoc at MIT, where she later worked as a researcher, and then after that as a researcher at Pennsylvania State University. Beginning in April of 2017, she began working as a researcher at Louisiana State University.[8]

In 2008, González became the first woman to receive a full professorship in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Louisiana State University.[9]

González believes that science will be much better off when there are as many women as men, and that this will happens when the common myths and misconceptions about physicists, which tend to segregate women from research, start to fall apart, and furthermore when people believe that physicists are simply normal people with normal lives.[10]

Before moving to the United States, González began a relationship with Jorge Pullin, an Argentinian theoretical physicist with specializations in black hole collisions and the theory of quantum gravity working at Louisiana State University. They later wed. The two have no children.

Career

González has published several papers on Brownian motion as a limit to the sensitivity of gravitational-wave detectors, and has an interest in data analysis for gravitational-wave astronomy.[11]

In February 2016, she was one of five LIGO scientists present for the announcement that the first direct gravitational wave observation had been detected in September 2015.[12][13][14][15][lower-alpha 1]

Awards

González was elected fellow of the Institute of Physics (2004), the American Physical Society (2007), and the American Astronomical Society (2020).[16]

She won the Bouchet Award in 2007, the Bruno Rossi Prize in 2017, the National Academy of Sciences Award for Scientific Discovery in 2017, and the Petrie Prize Lecture in 2019.[17][18]

González was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017.[19][20]

Personal life

González is married to Jorge Pullin, the Horace Hearne Chair in theoretical Physics at the Louisiana State University.[3]

Notes
  1. Other physicists present for the announcement were David Reitze, Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne, and France A. Córdova.

References
  1. Bär, Nora (11 February 2016). "Quién es Gabriela González, la argentina que confirmó la teoría de Einstein". La Nación. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  2. Losada, Samuel (2016-12-02). "Estamos todos como locos... Einstein estaría muy contento". Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-12-02.
  3. Enslin, Rob (January 4, 2019). "Physicist Gabriela González G'95 Reveals How Syracuse Prepared Her to Make Science History". SU News. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  4. Serra, Alfredo (2016-02-19). "La doctora en Física Gabriela González, un orgullo para el país y el mundo | GENTE". Gente. Archived from the original on 2016-08-29. Retrieved 2022-10-07.
  5. "Gabriela González: "El descubrimiento merece un Premio Nobel"". perfil.com. 2016-02-14. Archived from the original on 2016-12-01. Retrieved 2022-10-07.
  6. "Gabriela González". www.phys.lsu.edu. Retrieved 2022-10-07.
  7. Bär, Nora (2016-02-11). "Quién es Gabriela González, la argentina que confirmó la teoría de Einstein". LA NACION (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-10-07.
  8. "Gabriela González Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). Louisiana State University. Retrieved 2022-10-07.
  9. "Nature's 10". Nature. 540 (7634): 507–515. 2016-12-01. doi:10.1038/540507a. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 30905952. S2CID 49905540.
  10. Domínguez, Nuño (2018-08-20). ""La ciencia irá mucho mejor cuando tengamos tantas mujeres como hombres"". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2022-10-07.
  11. "Gabriela González, PhD". Louisiana State University. Archived from the original on 16 May 2016. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  12. Twilley, Nicola. "Gravitational Waves Exist: The Inside Story of How Scientists Finally Found Them". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2016-02-11.
  13. Abbott, B.P.; et al. (2016). "Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger". Phys. Rev. Lett. 116 (6): 061102. arXiv:1602.03837. Bibcode:2016PhRvL.116f1102A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102. PMID 26918975. S2CID 119286014.
  14. Naeye, Robert (11 February 2016). "Gravitational Wave Detection Heralds New Era of Science". Sky and Telescope. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  15. Castelvecchi, Davide; Witze, Alexandra (11 February 2016). "Einstein's gravitational waves found at last". Nature News. doi:10.1038/nature.2016.19361. S2CID 182916902. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  16. "AAS Fellows". AAS. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  17. "Award for Scientific Discovery". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  18. "Edward A. Bouchet Award". American Physical Society. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  19. "National Academy of Sciences Members and Foreign Associates Elected". National Academy of Sciences. May 2, 2017.
  20. Satake, Alison (April 12, 2017). "LSU's Gabriela González Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences". LSU Media Center. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
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