In this video, Nergis Mavalvala reflects on the moment her team first detected gravitational waves and how it broadened the scope of research for the field.

Nergis Mavalvala is the Marble Professor of Astrophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the 2010 recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Grant. Her work involves the detection of gravitational waves and quantum measurement science. She is a member of the team that first detected gravitational waves from colliding black holes in 2016.