A University professor participated in a national debate Tuesday night about Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, hosted by the American Museum of National History.
Gabriela González, physics and astronomy professor, was one of six “of the world’s leading voices in this great scientific debate” chosen to discuss recent discoveries about neutrinos that may travel faster than the speed of light, according to the museum’s website, where the debate was live-streamed.
The debate was held in honor of scientific author Isaac Asimov and was hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, a well-known astrophysicist who recognized the University for being the home of a world-renowned gravitational wave observatory.
The debate was lighthearted, with panelists joking about the complexity of their scientific studies and differences between science in the United States and Europe.
González, who has been at the University since 2001, has a “superb” reputation among the international science community, Michael Cherry, physics department chair, told The Daily Reveille before the debate.
“She is an important member of the department,” Cherry said.
He said González is an expert in the area of relativity. She’s a member of the team at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in Livingston, or LIGO, a project comprised of hundreds of scientists around the world that tries to study light speeds and detect ripples in space-time. She was chosen as the project’s spokesperson to communicate progress and findings to the scientific community, Cherry said.
González spoke mostly about the LIGO project during the debate, and said it was “measuring effects of gravity never seen before.”
She has the ability to understand the complexity of scientific concepts like relativism and communicate in an understanding way, Cherry said.
He said Tuesday’s debate focused on new findings in special relativity, and González was speaking as an “impartial outsider.”  
 
 
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Contact Brian Sibille at [email protected]