George Smoot '66, PhD '70, the 2006 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics, has died at the age of 80, reports Kasha Patel for The Washington Post. Smoot’s work “helped take an image of the universe in its infancy, providing strong support for the Big Bang theory and new insight into the origins of the cosmos,” writes Patel.
George Smoot '66, PhD '70, a recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work “finding the background radiation that finally pinned down the Big Bang Theory,” has died at age 80, reports the Associated Press.
Writing for Nature, Bruce Allen pays tribute to Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss, a pioneering physicist who “spearheaded the construction of the LIGO observatory to detect Einstein’s predicted ripples in space-time [and] leaves a legacy of persistence and mentorship.” Allen recalls how, decades earlier, Weiss rejoiced in a moment of discovery with him. “This is why we do science,” Weiss said. “Not for prizes or awards — that’s all nonsense. It’s for the satisfaction when something you’ve struggled with finally works.” Weiss, Allen emphasizes, was “a scientist driven by curiosity, persistence and the joy of understanding how the Universe works.”
David Baltimore, a former Institute Professor at MIT and a Nobel laureate, has passed at the age of 87, reports Gina Kolata for The New York Times. Baltimore’s work rocked “the foundation of the fledging field of molecular biology,” writes Kolata. His “Nobel-winning discovery [upended] what was called the central dogma, which stated that information in cells flowed in only one direction — from DNA to RNA to the synthesis of proteins. Dr. Baltimore showed that information can also flow in the reverse direction, from RNA to DNA.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Jon Mooallem memorializes the life and work of Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss, from his time hacking surplus military electronics into sophisticated hi-fi receivers as a teenager to dreaming up the concept for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Mooallem notes that Weiss and his LIGO colleagues’ breakthrough in achieving the first-ever detection of gravitational waves “has provided a new way of looking at the universe, of observing, through the charting of gravity waves emitted by moving objects, what was previously unobservable or unknown—a milestone that is frequently compared with Galileo’s invention of the telescope.”
Prof. Rainer Weiss, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose research helped “unlock the secrets of the universe,” has died at 92, reports Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe. “He really is, by a large margin, the most influential person this field has seen. And will see,” said Caltech Prof. Emeritus Kip Thorne. Nergis Mavalvala, dean of the MIT School of Science who conducted her doctoral research with Weiss, shared that Weiss “worked on three different things, and every one of them has changed the way we understand physics and the universe.”
Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss, a “renowned experimental physicist” who was “integral in confirming the existence of tiny ripples in spacetime called ‘gravitational waves,’” has died, reports Robert Lea for Space.com. “Remarkably, in confirming the existence of gravitational waves, Weiss both proved Einstein right and wrong at the same time,” writes Lea. “Einstein had been convinced that these ripples in spacetime were so faint that no apparatus on Earth could ever be sensitive enough to detect them, showing just how revolutionary LIGO was.”
Tri-City Herald reporter Annette Cary memorializes the life and legacy of MIT Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss, a “renowned experimental physicist and Nobel laureate,” who was “key to [the] world’s first gravitational wave discovery.” At the opening ceremony in June 2022 for the LIGO Exploration Center in Hanford, Washington, Weiss relayed how life is more interesting if you have a deeper understanding of the world around you and “how science does its tricks.”
Physics World reporter Michael Banks chronicles the life and work of MIT Prof. Emeritus and gravitational wave pioneer Rainer Weiss. “Weiss came up with the idea of detecting gravitational waves by measuring changes in distance as tiny as 10–18 m via an interferometer several kilometers long,” writes Banks. “His proposal eventually led to the formation of the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), which first detected such waves in 2015.”
Professor Emeritus Rainer Weiss, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who was honored for his work "developing a device that uses gravity to detect intergalactic events, like black holes colliding, and who helped confirm two central hypotheses about the universe,” has died at 92, reports Dylan Loeb McClain for The New York Times. In an earlier interview, Weiss reflected upon the wonder unlocked by LIGO: “With gravitational waves, you have a new way to look at [the] universe. You can see all that nature has in store. So now comes the question: What do you want to find out?”
Prof. Emeritus Daniel Kleppner, “an experimental physicist who helped to develop an atomic clock that became an essential part of global positioning systems (GPS),” has died at the age of 92, reports Dylan Loeb McClain for The New York Times. In addition to his work in atomic clocks, Kleppner also “helped to discover a rare fundamental state of matter predicted by Albert Einstein and his fellow theoretical physicist Satyendra Nath Bose,” writes McClain.
Prof. Emeritus Daniel Kleppner, a “highly honored physicist who developed technologies that helped pave the way for the Global Positioning System and whose foundational atomic discoveries helped open up the field of quantum computing,” has died at age 92, reports Anusha Mathur for The Washington Post. Prof. Wolfgang Ketterle explains that Kleppner’s research laid the groundwork for what “in the last 15 years has been developed into a new platform, a new approach for quantum computation. That has led to multimillion-dollar funding in multiple start-up companies in Europe and the U.S.”
Prof. Emeritus Stanley Fischer PhD '69, “one of the most influential economists of recent decades,” has died at age 81, reports Greg Ip for The Wall Street Journal. Through his various roles, “Fischer helped shape how an entire generation of central bankers and economic policymakers do their jobs,” writes Ip.
Prof. Emeritus Stanley Fischer PhD '69, an economist and central banker who helped “guide global economic policies and defuse financial crises for decades,” has died at the age of 81, reports James R. Hagerty for The New York Times. While at MIT, “Mr. Fischer became a magnet for graduate students,” writes Hagerty. “He encouraged them to visit him every week, ‘especially if you have nothing to say.’”
The Boston Globe remembers James Santoro ’23; Karenna Groff ’22, MEng ’23; her father, Michael Groff, MD an executive MBA student at MIT’s Sloan School of Management; and three others who passed away in a plane accident earlier this week. “Both Karenna and James were tremendous contributors to their sport teams, the institution, and their local communities,” says G. Anthony Grant, MIT’s director of athletics and head of the Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation, adding: “We offer our sincere condolences and grieve with the Groff and Santoro families as well as their loved ones.” E. Antonio Chiocca, a friend of the Groff family, remembers Dr.Groff as, “Just a really nice guy, great family man. Just an amazing individual.”