IEEE Milestone dedication to Virgo and Ligos

Ceremony on February 3rd, 2021

 On February 3rd 2021 EGO will host the ceremony of the dedication of a IEEE Milestone to the three gravitational waves antennas Virgo and the two LIGOs ‘for the first gravitational waves detection and the launching of the era of Multi Messenger Astronomy with the coordinated detection of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star merger.’

IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers launched a Milestone program in 1983 to celebrate the most significant achievements in IEEE’s areas of interest. For instance in Italy the program awarded in the past included several milestones in scientific and technological progress: for instance, the invention of the electric battery by Alessandro Volta and the experiments with the wireless telegraph by Guglielmo Marconi in Italy and the discovery of Radioconduction by Edouard Branly in France.

The ceremony will take place with a global event, on February 3, 2021 from 16.30 to 19.00 (CET) during which the Italian site of EGO in Cascina will be connected via network with the equivalent US sites in Livingston in Louisiana and in Hanford in the state of Washington . The event will see the participation of the Italian Minister of Research and University, Gaetano Manfredi, the president of the IEEE Kathy Susan Land, the governors of the two US states, the President of Tuscany and the presidents of the US and European Funding Agencies involved, primarily NSF, INFN, CNRS and NWO.

For further information and registration http://www.gwamilestone.com and www.ego-gw.it.

The whole event will be also streamed on EGO/Virgo youtube channel

The Virgo Collaboration is currently composed of approximately 580 members from 109 institutes in 13 different countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Monaco and Japan. The European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) hosts the Virgo detector near Pisa in Italy, and is funded by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France, the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in Italy, and Nikhef in the Netherlands. A list of the Virgo Collaboration groups can be found at http://public.virgo-gw.eu/the-virgo-collaboration/. More information is available on the Virgo website at http://www.virgo-gw.eu.

Media Contact:

Vincenzo Napolano

European Gravitational Observatory – EGO

Communication Responsible

Mob. +393472994985

tw:@ego_virgo

fb:@EgoVirgoCollaboration

IEEE Milestone dedication to Virgo and LIGOs – EGO – European Gravitational Observatory (ego-gw.it)