Symposium | Science Conference on Gravitational Waves

Ten years after the first detection of gravitational waves, this symposium brings together leading researchers to reflect on the profound scientific and conceptual transformations that have followed. In 2015, researchers first detected a gravitational-wave signal emitted by two black holes merging more than a billion light years away. This led to a new way of observing the universe.

From the historic discovery of GW150914 to the birth of multi-messenger astrophysics, the study of gravitational waves has opened new windows on the universe—revealing the dynamics of compact objects, the nature of dense matter, and new frontiers in cosmology and fundamental physics. This symposium celebrates the first decade of discovery and looks ahead to what lies beyond. Through a series of talks spanning observation, theory, fundamental physics, and cosmology, leading researchers will trace how gravitational waves have reshaped modern astrophysics—and how they continue to deepen our grasp of the universe’s most fundamental forces.

Program:
9:50 AM   Elena Aprile (Centennial Professor of Physics; Director of the Italian Academy, Columbia)
10:00 AM   Maximiliano Isi (Assistant Professor, Department of Astronomy, Columbia; Associate Research Scientist, Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute): “The LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA quest and the discovery of GW150914”
10:30 AM   Zsuzsanna A. Marka (Associate Research Scientist in the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia): “The birth of multi-messenger astrophysics”
11:00 AM   Break 
11:30 AM   Athira Menon (Lecturer, Department of Astronomy, Columbia): “What we have learned about the sources of compact objects through cosmic history”
12:00 PM   Lam Hui (Professor, Departments of Physics and Astronomy, Columbia): “What we have learned about fundamental physics and cosmology”
12:30 PM   Yuri Levin (Professor, Departments of Physics and Astronomy, Columbia): “Probing the structure of dense stars with gravitational-wave observations”
1:00 PM   Conclusion: Elena Aprile (Centennial Professor of Physics; Director of the Italian Academy, Columbia)