The first 10 years of gravitational-wave astronomy

The first gravitational-wave detection happened 10 years ago (September 14, 2015). To mark the occasion, we have organized a public event, which will take place on Thursday, September 11, at 6 pm in the U12 auditorium here on the Milano-Bicocca campus. The event happens in the context of the 26th biennial conference of the Italian Society of General Relativity and Gravitation.

In addition to celebrating the discovery of gravitational waves, our aim is to tell the story of how major scientific breakthroughs happen –from detecting the signal, to confirming it was real, to fostering the growth of a scientific community. To this end, we have invited Marco Drago (the researcher on shift at the detector 10 years ago, and thus the first human who actually saw a gravitational wave!), Fulvio Ricci (head of the Virgo gravitational-wave detector at the time), and Emanuele Berti (president of the International Society of General Relativity). Science journalist Silvia Bencivelli will moderate the round table.