A Glasgow professor at the centre of the search for gravitational waves has been recognised by a respected group of his peers.

Prof Jim Hough, of Physics and Astronomy, has been elected as one of the first Fellows of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the field. He was elected alongside Prof Roger Penrose of the University of Oxford and Prof Carlo Rovelli of the Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille.

The Society hopes that Fellows will provide intellectual leadership and serve as a group of experts, providing advice on policy decisions and serving on selection committees for various prizes and honours the Society awards.

Prof Hough has played a key role in developing instruments to search for gravitational waves from violent astrophysical systems in the Universe. Gravitational waves are predicted by Einstein’s General Theory of relativity but have still to be experimentally observed.

In particular Prof Hough plays a major part in the UK/German GEO 600 experiment in Hannover, and in the US Advanced LIGO project and is a member of the international science team for LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna – a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency ESA.

In the very first round of elections of the fellowship program, Prof Hough was elected by Society committee members Beverly Berger (chair), David Blair, Misao Sasaki and ex-officio members Malcolm McCallum (secretary) and Clifford Will (Deputy President) for his 'outstanding contributions in gravitational wave detection'.

Fellows are nominated based on the quality and impact of their work and will generally be expected to have made additional contributions to the field, for example, through service, outreach or books.

Prof Hough, who says he is honoured and delighted to be recognised in this way, will be inducted during a meeting of the Society on Thursday 8 July in Mexico City.

For more information contact Stuart Forsyth in the University of Glasgow Media Relations Office on 0141 330 4831 or email s.forsyth@admin.gla.ac.uk

Web links
The International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation
Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow
Prof James Hough, University of Glasgow
LISA mission, European Space Agency

First published: 21 May 2010

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