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A physics professor and gravity-wave hunter at The University of Western Australia has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the world's second-largest organisation for physicists.

Winthrop Professor David Blair, who is Director of the Australian International Gravitational Research Centre, was lauded for ‘many significant and innovative contributions to gravitational wave science and education, ranging from the Niobe bar detector* to investigations of instabilities in interferometers and the establishment of the Gravity Discovery Centre.'

Fellowship of the American Physical Society is a distinct honour signifying recognition by one's professional peers around the world.

Professor Blair began searching for gravitational waves in the 1990s. Gravitational waves are ripples in the curvature of spacetime that mark the beginning of time in the Big Bang and the end of time at the birth of black holes.

In 2005 - the World Year of Physics - Professor Blair was awarded the Australia and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science Medal . In 1995, he won the Walter Boas Medal of the Australian Institute of Physics .

* Niobe is exquisite technology based on superconductivity and microwaves that was developed entirely in Western Australia. It was designed to ring like a bell when struck by the feather-touch of gravitational waves. Niobe is the world's largest bar of the element Niobium. It was suspended inside a multi-walled tank of liquid helium where it was cooled to minus 269 degrees Celsius, a few degrees above absolute zero - the coldest temperature possible. Niobium is the best superconducting element and at this temperature it loses all electrical conductivity and repels all magnetic fields. Since completing operations the detector is displayed at the Gravity Discovery Centre.

Media references

Winthrop Professor David Blair (UWA School of Physics) (+61 8)  6488 2736

David Stacey (UWA Public Affairs) (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716