Barry Barish

Barish was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Lee and Harold Barish.{{Cite web |title=Harold S Barish, "United States Census, 1940" • FamilySearch |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K999-5XC |access-date=3 November 2023 |website=www.familysearch.org}} His parents' families were Jewish immigrants from a part of Poland that is now in Belarus.{{cite web|url=http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/178/1/Barish_OHO.pdf |title=Interview with Shirley K. Cohen |access-date=2017-10-03}}{{cite web|url=http://forward.com/articles/189277/a-small-town-jewish-family-s-rebuke-of-car-maker/|title=A Small-Town Jewish Family's Rebuke of Car Maker Henry Ford|date=18 December 2013 |access-date=October 3, 2017}} Just after World War II, the family moved to Los Feliz in Los Angeles. He attended John Marshall High School and other schools.{{cite web|url=https://home.lausd.net/apps/news/article/762576|title=Marshall High alumnus wins Nobel Prize in Physics|access-date=October 18, 2017}}

He earned a B.A. degree in physics (1957) and a Ph.D. degree in experimental high energy physics (1962) at the University of California, Berkeley.{{cite thesis |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/302101760/ |title=A study of the reaction negative pion plus proton going to negative pion plus neutral pion plus proton at 310 and 377 MEV |date=1963 |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |type=Ph.D. |last=Barish |first=Barry Clark |id={{ProQuest|302101760 }} |url-access=subscription |oclc=16727804}} He joined Caltech in 1963 as part of a new experimental effort in particle physics using frontier particle accelerators at the national laboratories. From 1963 to 1966, he was a research fellow, and from 1966 to 1991 an assistant professor, associate professor, and professor of physics. From 1991 to 2005, he became Linde Professor of Physics, and after that Linde Professor of Physics, emeritus.{{Cite web |title=Barry C. Barish CV 03-16 |url=https://labcit.ligo.caltech.edu/~BCBAct/BCB_CV0316.pdf |access-date=3 November 2023 |website=labcit.ligo.caltech.edu}} From 1984 to 1996, he was the principal investigator of Caltech High Energy Physics Group.

Firstly, Barish's experiments were performed at Fermilab using high-energy neutrino collisions to reveal the quark substructure of the nucleon.{{cite web|title=CALTECH HEP NEWS|url=http://www.hep.caltech.edu/hepnews/news.html#the-high-energy-physics-group-met-at-caltechs-athenaeum-with-former-hep-pi-and-2017-physics-nobel-laureate-barry-barish-to-honor-him-for-his-award-and-his-legacy-in-physics|publisher=Caltech|access-date=October 13, 2017|archive-date=May 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190508220002/http://www.hep.caltech.edu/hepnews/news.html#the-high-energy-physics-group-met-at-caltechs-athenaeum-with-former-hep-pi-and-2017-physics-nobel-laureate-barry-barish-to-honor-him-for-his-award-and-his-legacy-in-physics|url-status=dead}} Among others, these experiments were the first to observe a current that was weak and neutral, a linchpin of the electroweak unification theories of Salam, Glashow, and Weinberg.{{cite web|title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1979|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1979/|publisher=Nobel Foundation|access-date=October 15, 2017}}

In the 1980s, he directed MACRO, an experiment in a cave in Gran Sasso, Italy, that searched for exotic particles called magnetic monopoles and also studied penetrating cosmic rays, including neutrino measurements that provided important confirmatory evidence that neutrinos have mass and oscillate.{{Cite journal|last=Cho|first=Adrian|s2cid=40105741|date=2006-05-26|title=A Quiet Leader Unites Researchers in Drive for the Next Big Machine|journal=Science|language=en|volume=312|issue=5777|pages=1128–1129|doi=10.1126/science.312.5777.1128|issn=0036-8075|pmid=16728609}}

In 1991, Barish was named the Maxine and Ronald Linde Professor of Physics at Caltech.

In the early 1990s, he spearheaded GEM (Gammas, Electrons, Muons), an experiment that would have run at the Superconducting Super Collider which was approved after the former project L* led by Samuel Ting (and Barish as chairman of collaboration board) was rejected by SSC director Roy Schwitters.{{cite book|author1=Michael Riordan|author2=Lillian Hoddeson|author2-link=Lillian Hoddeson|author3=Adrienne W. Kolb|author3-link=Adrienne Kolb|title=Tunnel Visions: The Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2NspCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA157|year=2015|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-29479-7|pages=157–}} Barish was GEM spokesperson.

Barish became the principal investigator of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in 1994 and director in 1997. He led the effort through the approval of funding by the NSF National Science Board in 1994, the construction and commissioning of the LIGO interferometers in Livingston, LA and Hanford, WA in 1997. He created the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which now numbers more than 1000 collaborators worldwide to carry out the science.

The initial LIGO detectors reached design sensitivity and set many limits on astrophysical sources. The Advanced LIGO proposal was developed while Barish was director, and he has continued to play a leading role in LIGO and Advanced LIGO. The first detection of the merger of two 30 solar mass black holes was made on September 14, 2015.[https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102#fulltext Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger], PhysRevLett.116.061102. This represented the first direct detection of gravitational waves since they were predicted by Einstein in 1916 and the first ever observation of the merger of a pair of black holes. Barish delivered the first presentation on this discovery to a scientific audience at CERN on February 11, 2016,{{cite web|title=New results on the Search for Gravitational Waves|url=https://cds.cern.ch/record/2131411|publisher=CERN|access-date=October 15, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012101755/https://cds.cern.ch/record/2131411|archive-date=October 12, 2017|url-status=dead}} simultaneously with the public announcement.{{cite journal|url=https://cds.cern.ch/record/2131411|title=New results on the Search for Gravitational Waves|date=February 11, 2016|access-date=October 3, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012101755/https://cds.cern.ch/record/2131411|archive-date=October 12, 2017|url-status=dead}}

From 2001 to 2002, Barish served as co-chair of the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel subpanel that developed a long-range plan{{cite web|title=Subpanel on Long Range Planning for US HEP|url=http://science.energy.gov/~/media/hep/pdf/files/pdfs/hepap_lrp_web.pdf|publisher=Office of Science}} for U.S. high energy physics. He has chaired the Commission of Particles and Fields and the U.S. Liaison committee to the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP). In 2002, he chaired the NRC Board of Physics and Astronomy Neutrino Facilities Assessment Committee Report, "Neutrinos and Beyond".

From 2005 to 2013, Barish was director of the Global Design Effort{{cite web|title=ILC Global Design Effort|url=http://www.linearcollider.org/GDE|publisher=LinearCollider.org|access-date=2013-02-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130213030522/http://www.linearcollider.org/GDE|archive-date=2013-02-13|url-status=dead}} for the International Linear Collider (ILC).{{cite web|title=Barry Barish to lead International Linear Collider design.| date=20 March 2005 |url=http://www.interactions.org/cms/?pid=1018952|publisher=Interactions.org}} The ILC is the highest priority future project for particle physics worldwide, as it promises to complement the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in exploring the TeV energy scale. This ambitious effort is being uniquely coordinated worldwide, representing a major step in international collaborations going from conception to design to implementation for large scale projects in physics.

File:Barry C. Barish D81 4527 (38891874451).jpgIn 2002, he received the Klopsteg Memorial Award{{cite web|url=http://www.aapt.org/Programs/awards/klopsteg.cfm|title=Klopsteg Memorial Lecture Award|date=2017|publisher=American Association of Physics Teachers|access-date=December 14, 2017}} of the American Association of Physics Teachers. Barish was honored by the University of Bologna (2006){{cite web|title=University of Bologna|url=http://www.linearcollider.org/GDE/Director%27s-Corner/2006/12-October-2006---Pomp-and-Circumstance|publisher=ILC Newsline|access-date=2013-02-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101015012332/http://www.linearcollider.org/GDE/Director%27s-Corner/2006/12-October-2006---Pomp-and-Circumstance|archive-date=2010-10-15|url-status=dead}} and [https://web.archive.org/web/20151220201932/http://president.ufl.edu/office/honors-awards/honorary-degree-recipients/ University of Florida] ( 2007) where he received honorary doctorates. In 2007, delivered the [http://www.physics.umn.edu/events/vanvleck/2007.html Van Vleck lectures]{{cite web|title=Van Vleck Lectures|date=15 April 2024 |url=http://www.physics.umn.edu/events/vanvleck/2007.html|publisher=University of Minnesota}} at the University of Minnesota. The University of Glasgow honored Barish with an honorary degree of science in 2013.

Barish was honored as a Titan of Physics in the [http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2016/08/on-the-shoulders-of-giants/ On the Shoulders of Giants]{{cite web|title=On the Shoulders of Giants|url=http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2016/08/on-the-shoulders-of-giants/|publisher=World Science Festival}} series at the 2016 World Science Festival.

In 2016, Barish received the Enrico Fermi Prize "for his fundamental contributions to the formation of the LIGO and LIGO-Virgo scientific collaborations and for his role in addressing challenging technological and scientific aspects whose solution led to the first detection of gravitational waves".{{cite web|title=2016 Enrico Fermi Prize|url=http://www.primapagina.sif.it/article/466/il-premio-fermi-2016-alle-onde-gravitazionali|website=Società Italiana di Fisica}}

Barish was a recipient of the 2016 Smithsonian magazine's American Ingenuity Award in the Physical Science category.{{cite web|title=2016 American Ingenuity Awards|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/2016-smithsonian-american-ingenuity-awards-180961117/|website=Smithsonian Magazine}}

Barish was awarded the 2017 Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences "for his visionary and pivotal leadership role, scientific guidance, and novel instrument design during the development of LIGO that were crucial for LIGO's discovery of gravitational waves from colliding black holes, thus directly validating Einstein's 100-year-old prediction of gravitational waves and ushering a new field of gravitational wave astronomy."{{cite web|title=2017 Henry Draper Medal|url=http://www.nasonline.org/programs/awards/henry-draper-medal.html|website=National Academy of Sciences}}

Barish was a recipient of the 2017 Giuseppe and Vanna Cocconi Prize{{cite web|title=The Giuseppe and Vanna Cocconi Prize|url=https://eps-hepp.web.cern.ch/eps-hepp/cocconi-prize-awards.php|publisher=European Physical Society}} of the European Physical Society for his "pioneering and leading role in the LIGO observatory that led to the direct detection of gravitational waves, opening a new window to the Universe."

Barish was a recipient of the 2017 Princess of Asturias Award for his work on gravitational waves (jointly with Kip Thorne and Rainer Weiss).{{cite web|url=http://www.fpa.es/en/princess-of-asturias-awards/laureates/2017-rainer-weiss-kip-s-thorne-and-barry-c-barish-and-ligo-scientific-collaboration.html?especifica=0&idCategoria=0&anio=2017&especifica=0|title=The Princess of Asturias Foundation|first=Developed with webControl CMS by Intermark|last=Tecnologías|website=www.fpa.es|access-date=October 3, 2017}}

Barish was a recipient of the 2017 Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award{{Cite web|url=http://www.fdias.fudan.edu.cn/en/2017/07/23/2017-fudan-zhongzhi-science-award-announcement/|title=2017 Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award Announcement|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170902230408/http://www.fdias.fudan.edu.cn/en/2017/07/23/2017-fudan-zhongzhi-science-award-announcement/|archive-date=September 2, 2017|url-status=dead|access-date=December 14, 2017}} for his leadership in the construction and initial operations of LIGO, the creation of the international LIGO Scientific Collaboration, and for the successful conversion of LIGO from small science executed by a few research groups into big science that involved large collaborations and major infrastructures, which eventually enabled gravitational-wave detection" (jointly with Kip Thorne and Rainer Weiss).{{cite web|url=http://fdsif.fudan.edu.cn/en/?cat=3|title=Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award|access-date=October 3, 2017|archive-date=September 2, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170902225216/http://fdsif.fudan.edu.cn/en/?cat=3|url-status=dead}}

In 2017, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics (jointly with Rainer Weiss and Kip Thorne) "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves".

In 2018, Barish was honored as the Alumnus of the year by the University of California, Berkeley.{{cite web|title=Alumnus of the Year proves Einstein was right|url=https://awards.berkeley.edu/achievement-awards|publisher=UC Berkeley}}

In 2018, he received an honorary doctorate at Southern Methodist University.{{cite web|title=Barry C. Barish, Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist, to Receive Honorary Doctorate From SMU During 103rd Commencement, May 19|url=https://www.smu.edu/News/2018/nobel-prize-winning-physicist-barry-barish-to-receive-honorary-doctorate-from-smu|publisher=Southern Methodist University}}

In 2018, he was conferred the Honorary Degree Doctor Honoris Causa of Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski.{{cite web|title=Prof. Barry Barish was awarded the Honorary Title "Doctor Honoris Causa" at Sofia University, Dec 12|url=https://www.uni-sofia.bg/index.php/novini/novini_i_s_bitiya/prof_bari_barish_be_udostoen_s_pochetnoto_zvanie_doktor_honoris_kauza_na_sofijskiya_universitet|publisher=Sofia University}}

In 2023, he was awarded the inaugural the Copernicus Prize, bestowed by the government of Poland on "those who made exceptional contributions to the development of world science."{{Cite web |title=Nobel laureates awarded first Copernican Prizes |url=https://scienceinpoland.pl/en/news/news%2C97187%2Cnobel-laureates-awarded-first-copernican-prizes.html |access-date=2023-10-26 |website=Science in Poland |language=en}}

In 2023, he was awarded the National Medal of Science for "exemplary service to science, including groundbreaking research on sub-atomic particles. His leadership of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory led to the first detection of gravitational waves from merging black holes, confirming a key part of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. He has broadened our understanding of the universe and our Nation's sense of wonder and discovery."{{Cite web |title=UCR physicist awarded National Medal of Science |url=https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2023/10/24/ucr-physicist-awarded-national-medal-science |access-date=2023-10-26 |website=News |language=en}}

Barish has been elected to and held fellowship at the following organizations:

• the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS)
• the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
• the National Science Board (NSB)
• Fellow of American Physical Society (APS) (President 2011){{cite web|title=Members Elect Barry Barish as Next APS Vice-President|url=https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200810/barish.cfm|website=American Physical Society|access-date=October 29, 2017}}
• Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Barry Barish is married to Samoan Barish. They have two children, Stephanie Barish and Kenneth Barish, professor and chair of Physics & Astronomy at University of California, Riverside,{{cite web|url=https://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/49102|title=UCR Professor's Father Wins Nobel Prize in Physics |publisher=UC Riverside|access-date=October 5, 2017}} and three grandchildren, Milo Barish Chamberlin, Thea Chamberlin, and Ariel Barish.{{cite web|url=https://www.phenix.bnl.gov/WWW/lists/phenix-news-l/msg01328.html|title=We welcome another new PHENIXian: Ariel Dizon Barish|publisher=Brookhaven National Laboratory|access-date=November 18, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170503152114/http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/WWW/lists/phenix-news-l/msg01328.html|archive-date=May 3, 2017|url-status=dead}}

• List of Jewish Nobel laureates

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite journal|last=Hesla|first=Lea|title=Q&A with Nobel laureate Barry Barish|url=https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/qa-with-nobel-laureate-barry-barish|website=Symmetry Magazine|date=14 November 2017 }}
• {{cite journal|title=Will Nobel Prize overlook master builder of gravitational wave detectors?|last=Cho|first=A.|journal=Science|date=September 26, 2016|doi=10.1126/science.aah7350}}
• {{cite journal|title=A Quiet Leader Unites Researchers in Drive for the Next Big Machine|last=Cho|first=A.|s2cid=40105741|journal=Science|volume=312|issue=5777|pages=1128–1129|date=May 26, 2006|doi=10.1126/science.312.5777.1128|pmid=16728609}}

• {{Commons category-inline}}
• [http://www.kva.se/en/Events-List/2017/the-long-odyssey-from-einstein-to-gravitational-waves/ Barry Barish: The Long Odyssey from Einstein to Gravitational Waves – Popular Science Lecture, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031215533/http://www.kva.se/en/Events-List/2017/the-long-odyssey-from-einstein-to-gravitational-waves/ |date=2020-10-31 }}
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ6E7IN-1Qw Barry Barish: From Einstein to Gravitational Waves and Beyond – 2016 Tencent WE Summit]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNlK_nSJDyc Einstein, Black Holes and Cosmic Chirps – A Lecture by Barry Barish, Fermilab]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReUaTI5gI80 Barry Barish: On the Shoulders of Giants, World Science Festival]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdLLNS_0PV0 Episode 10 Barry Barish discusses gravitational waves, LIGO, and the scientists who made it happen, TheIHMC]
• [https://www.phys.uniroma1.it/fisica/en/node/11152 Fermi Chair, Sapienza Università di Roma]
• {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture on 8 December 2017 LIGO and Gravitational Waves II
• [https://magazine.ucr.edu/nobel-teacher profile of Barish in UC Riverside magazine]
• [https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/10441294653-hyde-park-civilizace/221411058090220/ Barry Barish in Hyde Park Civilization on ČT24 10.7.2021 (moderator Daniel Stach)]

{{Nobel Prize in Physics}}

{{FRS 2019}}

{{2017 Nobel Prize winners}}

{{Presidents of the American Physical Society}}

{{Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research}}

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Category:1936 births

Category:Living people

Category:Nobel laureates in Physics

Category:American Nobel laureates

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Category:Jewish American physicists

Category:California Institute of Technology faculty

Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society

Category:Gravitational-wave astronomy

Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences

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Category:United States National Science Foundation officials

Category:American particle physicists

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Category:Scientists from California

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