Ms. Márka’s main contribution is leading the manufacturing and testing of a key subsystem, the timing system for the LIGO detectors. On September 14, 2015, the LIGO detectors observed that three solar masses of energy had radiated away from merging black holes, in the form of gravitational waves. Using a laser interferometer, which splits a single beam into two that eventually rejoin, LIGO was able to detect a small displacement from the normal wave. This displacement indicated the presence of a gravitational-wave.


Zsuzsa Marka is an experimental physicist at Columbia University. She works on the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) project, the experiment that a year ago announced the discovery of gravitational-waves from a pair of merging black holes. Her main contribution is leading the manufacturing and testing of a key subsystem, the timing system, for the LIGO detectors, and she also leads the timing diagnostics studies for the collaboration. Beyond instrumentation, she also works with members of the Columbia Experimental Gravity group on various aspects of gravitational-wave astrophysics.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx