Rainer Weiss

Rainer Weiss
Rainer Weiss
	Weiss in 2017
Born	September 29, 1932; Berlin, Germany
Died	August 25, 2025 (aged 92); Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Education	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS, PhD);
Known for	Pioneering laser interferometric gravitational wave observation
Spouse	Rebecca Young (m. 1959)
Children	2
Awards	Einstein Prize (2007); Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2016); Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2016); Shaw Prize (2016); Kavli Prize (2016); Harvey Prize (2016); Princess of Asturias Award (2017); Nobel Prize in Physics (2017);
	Scientific career
Fields	Physics; Laser physics; Experimental gravitation; Cosmic background measurements
Institutions	Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Princeton University; Tufts University;
Thesis	Stark Effect and Hyperfine Structure of Hydrogen Fluoride (1962)
Doctoral advisor	Jerrold R. Zacharias
Doctoral students	Nergis Mavalvala; Philip K. Chapman; Rana X. Adhikari
Other notable students	Bruce Allen; Sarah Veatch

Rainer Weiss (/waɪs/ WYSSE, German: [vaɪs]; September 29, 1932 – August 25, 2025) was a German-American physicist, known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. He was a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an adjunct professor at Louisiana State University. He is best known for inventing the laser interferometric technique which is the basic operation of LIGO. He was Chair of the COBE Science Working Group.

In 2017, Weiss was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Kip Thorne and Barry Barish, "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves".

Weiss helped realize a number of challenging experimental tests of fundamental physics. He was a member of the Fermilab Holometer experiment, which uses a 40m laser interferometer to measure properties of space and time at quantum scale and provide Planck-precision tests of quantum holographic fluctuation.