Ronald Drever

American physicist

Written by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

July 21, 2026

Quick Summary

Ronald Drever was an American physicist who played a crucial role in the development of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). He shared the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics with Rainer Weiss and Kip Thorne for their work on LIGO and the first direct detection of gravitational waves.

Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime caused by massive accelerating objects, predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. LIGO, a collaboration led by Drever, Weiss, and Thorne, uses interferometers to detect these faint waves. In 2015, LIGO made its groundbreaking detection of gravitational waves from two merging black holes, confirming a key prediction of Einstein's theory and opening a new window for observing the universe.

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

4 Britannica Sources

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.

Kip Thorne
…in 1979 recruited Scottish physicist Ronald Drever to Caltech. Drever had been working on laser interferometers to detect gravity waves. The interferometer is shaped like an L. Laser beams are sent down each arm of the L to mirrors at the end. Usually, when the light returns to the corner,…
Read More
…in 1979 recruited Scottish physicist Ronald Drever to Caltech. Drever had been working on laser interferometers to detect gravity waves. The interferometer is shaped like an L. Laser beams are sent down each arm of the L to mirrors at the end. Usually, when the light returns to the corner,…
Read More

Rainer Weiss
LIGO
…the NSF with Thorne and Ronald Drever of Caltech. The NSF agreed to go forward with the LIGO project as an MIT-Caltech collaboration under the leadership of Weiss, Thorne, and Drever.
Read More
…the NSF with Thorne and Ronald Drever of Caltech. The NSF agreed to go forward with the LIGO project as an MIT-Caltech collaboration under the leadership of Weiss, Thorne, and Drever.
Read More