Karsten Danzmann receives honorary doctorate from RWTH Aachen
Prof. Dr. Karsten Danzmann has been awarded an honorary doctorate by RWTH Aachen University. He received the award for his outstanding contributions to the development of technologies that led to the discovery of gravitational waves and for his support of the Einstein Telescope. Danzmann has previously spoken out in favour of the Euregio Meuse-Rhine as the location for the construction of this telescope.
Karsten Danzmann is director of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (also known as the Albert Einstein Institute) and director of the Institute for Gravitational Physics at Leibniz University Hannover. The physicist is considered the “father of gravitational wave research in Germany”.
In an interview a year and a half ago, Karsten Danzmann already expressed his preference for the Euregio Meuse-Rhine as the ideal location for the construction of the Einstein Telescope. He said that ‘the Euregio around Maastricht, Aachen and Liège is the ideal place for a third-generation gravitational wave detector. This is due to the knowledge that has been built up over decades in the Netherlands and Germany.’
The honorary doctorate was awarded on Friday 9 May in Aachen. Karsten Danzmann was delighted to receive this award from RWTH Aachen University and this recognition of his work. ‘With the European Einstein Telescope and the LISA space observatory, we are looking forward to a bright future for gravitational wave astronomy,’ he said.
Karsten Danzmann is one of the world’s leading scientists in the field of experimental gravitational physics. Researchers in his Laser Interferometry and Gravitational Wave Astronomy department design and operate large gravitational wave detectors on Earth and in space. Danzmann’s department is also closely involved in the development of the Einstein Telescope.
