Peter Saulson, Stefan Ballmer and Brown all professors in the physics department at SU collaborated with scientists around the world as part of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), a project involving hundreds of scientists that seeks to detect gravitational waves. LIG
Four days before the gravitational waves were originally detected, Stefan Ballmer flew to the LIGO Observatory in Hanford, Washington, to fine tune the LIGO interferometer, a machine built to detect gravitational waves, at the lab. He worked throughout the weekend.