Featured image via Swinburne University’s official Twitter page.
The Australian Government is backing a new Centre for Excellence to support a
vital national and international research program into gravitational waves.
Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham today
officially launched the Centre of
Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery at Swinburne
University and said the facility will be critical in progressing
further collaborative research in this rapidly advancing field.
“The Turnbull Government is investing AU$31.3 million into
the facility to ensure Australia remains a world leader in gravitational wave
research and discovery,” Minister Birmingham said.
“This facility builds on decades of Australian investment in
gravitational wave and pulsar science and merges research activities by
Australian and international researchers into a focused national program.
“Last year we saw the historic first detection of
gravitational waves culminating in international researchers being awarded the
2017 Nobel Prize in Physics.
“Australian researchers, scientists and engineers played an
important role in this major scientific discovery and the new Centre of
Excellence will further explore these first detections and help researchers
better understand the extreme physics of black holes and warped space-time.
“The Centre of Excellence will help equip
researchers with cutting edge technology to further advance research across
multiple disciplines, from lasers and radio instrumentation to big data and
astronomy.”
Researchers based at Swinburne University of Technology will
work closely with Australian Universities—The University of Adelaide; The
Australian National University; The University of Western Australia; The
University of Melbourne Monash University—as well as other participating
Australian and international organisations.
The Australian Research Council (ARC) Centres of Excellence scheme fosters
significant collaborations between universities, publicly funded research
organisations, other research bodies, governments and businesses in Australia
and overseas, all to support outstanding research.
