# RIP Rainier V. Weiss **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 2, 2025, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-rainier-v-weiss/1022675 "2025-09-02T11:33:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-rainier-v-weiss/1022675/1 "2025-09-02T11:33:46Z")
Who? Nobel prize co-winner in n2017 for his work on LIGO and the detection of gravitational waves. Also, according to Wikipedia: > Weiss helped realize a number of challenging experimental tests of fundamental physics. He was a member of the [Fermilab](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermilab "Fermilab") [Holometer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holometer "Holometer") experiment, which uses a 40m [laser interferometer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson_Interferometer "Michelson Interferometer") to measure properties of space and time at quantum scale and provide Planck-precision tests of quantum [holographic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle "Holographic principle") fluctuation. He was also my instructor in the Junior Physics Lab (meaning the physics lab for junior year, not like the junior woodchucks). His office, in the old wooden creaky-floored Building 20 at MIT, aka “The Magic Incubator” because of all the ideas that came out of it. (The supposedly “temporary” WWII-era building was finally torn down in 1998 and replaced by the Gehry-designed State Center, although a running joke is that it’s still there, protected by a Star Trek-like “cloaking device”) Weiss’ office smelled heavily of his pipe smoke and tobacco. He was quick with a good analogy an explanation for the physics students taking his course. Considering all the tobacco, I’m sort of surprised he lived to age 92. ( also could’ve sworn I’d read of his death earlier. His path to professorship and eventual fame was not a smooth one, but impressive nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-rainier-v-weiss/1022675/2 "2025-09-02T18:25:10Z")
I read just Rainier Weiss’ Wikipedia page and saw how he was admirable all right. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-rainier-v-weiss/1022675/3 "2025-09-03T01:22:10Z")
LIGO oh wow! I want to visit the site, the one up in Washington state. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-rainier-v-weiss/1022675/4 "2025-09-03T01:29:47Z")
I’m ashamed to say that when I saw the thread title, I thought it’d be a Supreme Court case that was getting overturned. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-rainier-v-weiss/1022675/5 "2025-09-03T01:31:14Z")
That thought crossed my mind too. But I’m not ashamed to say it! 😇 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-rainier-v-weiss/1022675/6 "2025-09-03T01:48:25Z")
Well, I’m ashamed because I’m someone who should have remembered who he was.