Professor Sir James Hough, a leading figure in the historic detection of gravitational waves, will tonight (10 Oct) become the first recipient of Glasgow Science Centre’s Inspiring Innovation Award.
The Inspiring Innovation Award acknowledges individuals or groups whose work in science, technology, engineering or mathematics embodies qualities associated with innovation, such as perseverance, risk-taking, problem solving and creativity.
Gravitational waves, first predicted by Albert Einstein, are invisible, fast-moving ripples in space created when two bodies, such as planets or stars, orbit each other. These ripples spread out in the same way as when a pebble drops into a pond.
Professor Sir James, who received a knighthood in January, has worked at the University of Glasgow since he began his undergraduate studies in 1963. He became Professor of Experimental Physics in 1986 at the University of Glasgow and was director of the university’s Institute for Gravitational Research from 2000 to 2009. He is now the Associate Director.
He contributed greatly to the University of Glasgow team’s part in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory collaboration, also known as LIGO. LIGO’s US-based detectors made the historic first direct detection of gravitational waves from a pair of colliding black holes in September 2015, initiating the fast-growing new field of gravitational wave astronomy.
Dr Stephen Breslin, Glasgow Science Centre’s chief executive, said:
“The Inspiring Innovation Award is a celebration of the achievements of individuals or groups who have made a pioneering contribution to science and technology and who embody all of the qualities that Professor Sir James Hough possesses such as risk-taking, problem solving, creativity, communication, critical thinking and collaboration.
“James Hough’s incredible achievement in being part of the detection of gravitational waves was long considered almost impossible to accomplish. In fact, just ten years before their discovery in 2015, a well-known bookmaker was offering odds as long as 500/1 for gravitational waves to be detected by 2010.
“The award is an integral part of Glasgow Science Centre’s forthcoming innovation exhibition Idea No59 which will celebrate the qualities of innovators such as Professor Sir James Hough, and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.”
Professor Sir James Hough said:
“I’m delighted to be picking up the first Inspiring Innovation Award from Glasgow Science Centre tonight. It is a real honour to be recognised in my home city for the work I have done at the University of Glasgow over more than five decades and the LIGO collaboration’s first detection of gravitational waves.
“Since that first detection, the Advanced LIGO and Italy-based Virgo detectors have picked up signals from many more black hole collisions along with the first signals from the inspiral of a pair of neutron stars. That first detection opened up a whole new way to explore and understand the cosmos, and I’m thrilled to be among the first cohort of gravitational wave astronomers along with my colleagues around the world.”
