By Sanaa Mahmud, Research Team Member
Award-winning physicist, professor, PhD holder, and the Dean of MIT’s School of Science: Nergis Mavalvala does it all. Between her ground-breaking research in detecting gravitational waves and her inspiring leadership capabilities, this powerful woman in STEMM deserves to be a household name.
Nergis Mavalvala was born in Karachi, Pakistan in 1968. She grew up in Lahore, where her parents encouraged her to pursue her passions with science and discovery. As a child, Mavalvala was curious and hard-working, both in and out of the classroom. She enjoyed learning about math and physics in school but also took it upon herself to repair bicycles at the neighbourhood bike shop. Mavalvala continued on the science path throughout her schooling, and by the time she was in high school, she was teaching 8th-grade math as a substitute teacher. After high school, she chose to travel to the United States for college, where she attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts and earned a Bachelor’s degree in physics and astronomy. In 1990, she pursued her PhD in physics at MIT and began her research in gravitational waves with her advisor Rainier Weiss, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. Their project involved constructing a gravitational wave detector prototype, with the hopes of creating a method to detect gravitational waves in space occurring billions of lightyears away. This idea for a wave-detection machine called an ‘interferometer’, eventually took shape to become the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), which was the first to directly detect gravitational waves from colliding black holes in space in 2016.
LIGO, a project in which Mavalvala played an instrumental role, was a set of twin interferons that detects ripples in the fabric of spacetime caused by the motion of black holes and neutron stars. These gravitational waves provide an entirely new view of our universe because it allows us to detect and map phenomena that are “unseeable” to the eye. Up until the invention of LIGO, astrophysicists relied on electromagnetic radiation, where things like visible light, X-rays, and microwaves were being used to understand the mechanisms of space. With LIGO, scientists like Mavalvala have made it possible to instead use gravitational waves to detect movements in space that were not visible with EM radiation. As stated by the LIGO Lab, “Things like colliding black holes, which are utterly invisible to EM astronomers, are beacons in the vast cosmic sea to LIGO.” This research has allowed us to detect significant cataclysmic events across lightyears, such as colliding black holes and exploding stars, which gives rise to emerging questions in astrophysics and forges a deeper understanding of our universe.
After earning her PhD, Mavalvala did her postdoctoral degree at Caltech. In 2000, she joined the LIGO Laboratory and collaborated with Weiss and his group to construct the LIGO detectors. She worked at Caltech for two years before going back to MIT as an assistant professor of physics in 2002. Mavalvala continued to work with the LIGO group, helping to design and improve the interferometers. This important work won Weiss and his group the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017, as it was the first piece of technology to detect gravitational waves.
Mavalvala went on to win numerous awards throughout her career, including the MacArthur “Genius” Award in 2010, LGBTQ+ Scientist of the Year by the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals in 2014, and the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2015. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2017, where she helps to provide expert advice to the U.S. government on issues concerning science, engineering, and health.
In 2020, Mavalvala was named the first female Dean of MIT’s School of Science. MIT’s president spoke on her brilliance, stating that she is “a deft, collaborative problem-solver, a wise and generous colleague, an incomparable mentor, and a champion for inclusive excellence.” Since her appointment in 2020, Mavalvala has aimed to better the School of Science’s community through placing an emphasis on inclusion and acceptance. She co-founded the Physics Values Committee, which is a group that advises the department on issues of respect, inclusion, staff and student well-being, and mentorship. Mavalvala has also introduced initiatives to both meet the department’s educational goals and reduce the workload and stress levels of students and staff. She has also updated the graduate admissions procedures to promote equity and increase diversity among the student body.
As an openly queer Pakistani-American female scientist, Nergis Mavalvala is changing the conversation for students in STEMM. She leads with intellect and compassion, and uses her own identity to drive her actions in order to create a more accepting scientific community. Her astounding accomplishments, such as her research with detecting gravitational waves, have allowed her to earn success in the fields of astrophysics and academia. Nergis Mavalvala is an exceptional example of a trailblazer, demonstrating how hard work coupled with a passion for science and discovery can lead to incredible success.
Comments