PM praises Pakistani scientist who played key role in discovery of gravitational waves

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says Dr Nergis Mavalvala is a source of inspiration for Pakistani scientists and students

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has felicitated Dr Nergis Mavalvala, the Pakistani-American Astrophysicist, for being part of the team of scientists who have recently detected gravitational waves in space.

In a statement on Monday, the prime minister said Mavalvala, who is also a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a source of inspiration for Pakistani scientists and students aspiring to become future scientists.

The entire nation is proud of her valuable contribution, he added.



PM Nawaz has directed the Ministry of Science and Technology to devise a framework within a span of a week to facilitate Pakistani scientists in their scientific pursuits.

On Thursday, the detection confirmed a major prediction of Albert Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity and opened an unprecedented new window onto the cosmos.

Dr Mavalvala, 47, was born to a Parsi family in Karachi where she did her primary schooling.

She worked with researchers at the US-based underground detectors Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) Laboratory to build sophisticated  sensors to detect gravitational ripples created from the collision of two black holes some 1.3 billion years ago and had been hurtling through space to reach Earth on September 14, 2015.