PHYSICIST

Rainer Weiss

1932 - Today

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Rainer "Rai" Weiss ( WYSSE, German: [vaɪs]; born September 29, 1932) is a German-born American physicist, known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. He is a professor of physics emeritus at MIT and an adjunct professor at LSU. He is best known for inventing the laser interferometric technique which is the basic operation of LIGO. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Rainer Weiss has received more than 543,628 page views. His biography is available in 60 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 54 in 2019). Rainer Weiss is the 258th most popular physicist (up from 261st in 2019), the 903rd most popular biography from Germany (up from 1,060th in 2019) and the 38th most popular German Physicist.

Rainer Weiss is most famous for being a part of the team that won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017. Weiss was one of three people who led the construction of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) which detected gravitational waves for the first time in 2016.

Memorability Metrics

  • 540k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 62.31

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 60

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 10.00

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.77

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Rainer Weiss ranks 258 out of 851. Before him are Brian Josephson, Charles Wheatstone, Masatoshi Koshiba, Philip Warren Anderson, David Brewster, and Otto Robert Frisch. After him are Syukuro Manabe, Max Delbrück, John Hasbrouck Van Vleck, Julian Schwinger, John Cockcroft, and Pierre-Gilles de Gennes.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1932, Rainer Weiss ranks 58. Before him are Thomas Klestil, Louis Malle, Harriet Andersson, John Searle, Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, and Algirdas Brazauskas. After him are Nam June Paik, Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Piper Laurie, Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner, Stephen Covey, and Robert Vaughn.

Others Born in 1932

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In Germany

Among people born in Germany, Rainer Weiss ranks 903 out of 7,253. Before him are Frederick I, Elector of Saxony (1370), Gudrun Ensslin (1940), Götz von Berlichingen (1480), Otto I, Duke of Bavaria (1120), Maria Anna of Bavaria (1574), and Ulrich von Jungingen (1360). After him are Gershom Scholem (1897), Kurt Zeitzler (1895), Bertha Benz (1849), Günter Netzer (1944), Infanta Maria Josepha of Portugal (1857), and Max Delbrück (1906).

Others born in Germany

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Among PHYSICISTS In Germany

Among physicists born in Germany, Rainer Weiss ranks 38. Before him are Wolfgang Paul (1913), Herbert Kroemer (1928), Theodor W. Hänsch (1941), Horst Ludwig Störmer (1949), Klaus Hasselmann (1931), and Georg Bednorz (1950). After him are Max Delbrück (1906), August Kundt (1839), Carl von Linde (1842), Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (1912), Christoph Scheiner (1575), and Friedrich Hund (1896).

German born Physicists

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