Gravity-wave researchers bag top science prize

Two French physicists involved in Virgo, a European project to detect gravitational waves, have been awarded the CNRS Gold Medal.

The winners are Alain Brillet, a research director at the Côte d’Azur University, and Thibault Damour, a professor of theoretical physics at the IHES research institute. 

The Virgo team supported the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (Ligo) in the United States, which announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves in February 2016.