Ronald Drever

Ron Drever
Born	Ronald William Prest Drever 1931 (age 85–86) UK
Citizenship	British
Nationality	UK
Fields	Physics, Laser physics, Experimental Gravitation
Institutions	California Institute of Technology, University of Glasgow
Alma mater	University of Glasgow (PhD)
Thesis	Studies of orbital electron capture using proportional counters (1959)
Known for	Laser stabilizing technique Pioneering laser interferometric gravitational wave observation.
Notable awards	Einstein Prize (2007) Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2016) Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2016) Shaw Prize (2016) Kavli Prize (2016) Smithsonian, American Ingenuity Award (2016)
Website www.pma.caltech.edu/content/ronald-w-drever

Ronald William Prest Drever (born 1931) is a Scottish-American experimental physicist. He was a Professor Emeritus at the California Institute of Technology, co-founded the LIGO project, and was a co-inventor of the Pound–Drever–Hall technique for laser stabilisation. This work was instrumental in the first detection of gravitational waves in September 2015.

Drever was educated at the University of Glasgow where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1953 followed by a PhD in 1959 for research on orbital electron capture using proportional counters.

After his PhD, Drever did postdoctoral research in Glasgow before being recruited to form a gravitational wave program at Caltech.

Drever's contributions to the design and implementation of the LIGO interferometers were critically important to their ability to function in the extreme sensitivity realm required for detection of gravitational waves (10⁻²³ strain).

Drever's most recent work involved the development of magnetically levitated optical tables for seismic isolation of experimental apparatus.

Ronald Drever has been recognized by numerous awards including:

...
Wikipedia