Barry Barish, Nobel Prize in Physics 2017

Barry Clark Barish is an American experimental physicist and Nobel Laureate. He is a Linde Professor of Physics, emeritus at California Institute of Technology. He is a leading expert on gravitational waves.

Birth and education

Barish was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Lee and Harold Barish. His parents' families were Jewish immigrants from a part of Poland that is now in Belarus. Just after World War II, the family moved to Los Feliz in Los Angeles. He attended John Marshall High School and other schools.

He earned a B.A. degree in physics (1957) and a Ph.D. degree in experimental high energy physics (1962) at the University of California, Berkeley. He joined Caltech in 1963 as part of a new experimental effort in particle physics using frontier particle accelerators at the national laboratories. From 1963 to 1966, he was a research fellow, and from 1966 to 1991 an Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor of Physics. From 1991 to 2005, he became Linde Professor of Physics, and after that Linde Professor of Physics, Emeritus. From 1984 to 1996, he was the principal investigator of Caltech High Energy Physics Group.

In 2017, Barish was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics along with Rainer Weiss and Kip Thorne "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves".

Honors and awards

• 2002 - Klopsteg Memorial Award.
• 2006 - Honorary doctorate, University of Bologna.
• 2006 - Honorary doctorate, University of Florida.
• 2007 - Delivered the Van Vleck lectures at the University of Minnesota.
• 2013 - Honorary degree of science, University of Glasgow.
• 2016 - Titan of Physics in the On the Shoulders of Giants, World Science Festival.
• 2016 - Enrico Fermi Prize .
• 2016 - Smithsonian magazine's American Ingenuity Award in the Physical Science category.
• 2017 - Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.
• 2017 - Giuseppe and Vanna Cocconi Prize of the European Physical Society.
• 2017 - Princess of Asturias Award.
• 2017 - Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award.
• 2017 - Nobel Prize in Physics.
• 2018 - Alumnus of the year by the University of California, Berkeley.
• 2018 - Honorary doctorate at Southern Methodist University.
• 2018 - Honorary Degree Doctor Honoris Causa of Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski.
• 2019 - UC Riverside magazine honored him with a profile detailing his career and accomplishments (Vol. 14 No.4).

Barish has been elected to and held fellowship at the following organizations:

• the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS)
• the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
• the National Science Board (NSB)
• Fellow of American Physical Society (APS) (President 2011)
• Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Family: Barry Barish is married to Samoan Barish. They have two children, Stephanie Barish and Kenneth Barish, professor and chair of Physics & Astronomy at University of California, Riverside, and three grandchildren, Milo Barish Chamberlin, Thea Chamberlin, and Ariel Barish.