exhibited the thermal spectrum characteristic of the remnant radiation from the Big Bang. He later became co-founder and science advisor of the NASA Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite, which made detailed mapping of the radiation. Weiss also pioneered the concept of using lasers for an interferometric gravitational wave detector, suggesting that the path length required for such a detector would necessitate kilometer-scale arms. He built a prototype in the 1970s, following earlier work by Robert L. Forward. He co-founded the NSF LIGO (gravitational-wave detection) project, which was based on his report "A study of a long Baseline Gravitational Wave Antenna System". Both of these efforts couple challenges in instrument science with physics important to the understanding of the Universe. In February 2016, he was one of the four scientists of LIGO/Virgo collaboration presenting at the press conference for the announcement that the first direct gravitational wave observation had been made in September 2015. Honors and awards Rainer Weiss has been recognized by numerous awards including: In 2006, with John C. Mather, he and the COBE team received the Gruber Prize in Cosmology. In 2007, with Ronald Drever, he was awarded the APS Einstein Prize for his work. In 2016 and 2017, for the achievement of gravitational waves detection, he received: The Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, Gruber Prize in Cosmology, Shaw Prize, Kavli Prize in Astrophysics The Harvey Prize together with Kip Thorne and Ronald Drever. The Smithsonian magazine's American Ingenuity Award in the Physical Science category, with Kip Thorne and Barry Barish. The Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics, 2017. Princess of Asturias Award (2017) (jointly with Kip Thorne and Barry Barish). The Nobel Prize in Physics (2017) (jointly with Kip Thorne and Barry Barish) Fellowship of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters In 2018, he was awarded the American Astronomical Society's Joseph Weber Award for Astronomical Instrumentation "for his invention of the interferometric gravitational-wave detector, which led to the first detection of long-predicted gravitational waves." In 2020 he was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society. Selected publications Notes References Further reading External links Rainer Weiss's website at MIT LIGO Group at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research Q&A: Rainer Weiss on LIGO's origins at news.mit.edu Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: including the Nobel Lecture 8 December 2017 LIGO and Gravitational Waves I 1932 births