Nergis Mavalvala
Spring 2017 Honorary Degree Recipient
Doctor of Laws (honoris causa)
Physicist Dr. Nergis Mavalvala has been a key part of the team at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) for more than two decades. Recently, the ultrasensitive LIGO telescope captured one of the most significant scientific discoveries of our time: the first observation of the gravitational waves predicted by Einstein鈥檚 General Theory of Relativity.
From Karachi, Pakistan, Dr. Mavalvala came to the United States to study at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she earned a degree in Physics and Astronomy and graduated Magna cum Laude. This was followed by a PhD in Physics at MIT, were she developed a theory for and experimentally demonstrated the automatic alignment sensing and control system now used in Initial LIGO detectors. Dr. Mavalvala joined the faculty at MIT in 2002 and today is Marble Professor of Astrophysics.
Dr. Mavalvala describes herself as an 鈥渙ut, queer person of color,鈥� and has demonstrated a strong commitment to promoting diversity in the sciences. She is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and of the American Physical Society, which awarded her the Joseph Keithley Prize in 2013. She won the MIT School of Science Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2012, and the Edgerton Award for Faculty Achievement at MIT in 2007, and was co-recipient of the 2016 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. And in 2010, she received a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, a research prize commonly referred to as a 鈥淕enius Grant.鈥�