Rai Weiss is a professor emeritus at MIT, where he also earned his undergraduate degree and PhD. He, along with Barry Barish and Kip Thorne, won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics “for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves,” work that was completed with the rest of their team of more than a thousand scientists, engineers, technicians, and managers. He has won numerous awards for his pioneering work on both the COBE (NASA’s Cosmic Background Explorer) and LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) projects. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Physical Society, and many other professional societies.

Weiss is a charming and consummate storyteller. His playful exuberance is incandescent. And I appreciate how forthright he is, as I think it is important to talk about the business of large projects and admit to the shortcomings rather than only discussing them with reverent worshipful praise. I admire that Weiss is relentlessly passionate even into his eighties. Just as a black hole shakes up space-time every few years, Weiss continues to pivot and switch direc- tion himself. It’s impossible not to think that this tendency has been responsible for his continued fertility of mind. He is a big-picture thinker that loves to keep things fresh by shaking himself out of complacency. 

Available on Amazon: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner

About Professor Brian Keating:

https://www.youtube.com/drbriankeating

Podcast in iTunes

https://simonsobservatory.org/

https://briankeating.com/

https://bkeating.physics.ucsd.edu/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbriankeating/