Barry Barish, distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at UC Riverside and a Nobel laureate, has been elected a member of the American Philosophical Society, or APS. The APS is the oldest learned society in North America, founded by Benjamin Franklin for the “promotion of useful knowledge.” Election to the APS recognizes extraordinary accomplishments in every field of study as well as distinguished work in the arts, business, and public service.

Barish is one of only 38 new APS members. They represent outstanding achievement in the sciences, humanities, social sciences, and technology, as well as leadership in industry, higher education, and nonprofit administration. The current elected membership of the APS consists of 817 resident members and 159 international members. Only 5,854 members have been elected since 1743.

Barish received the 2017 Nobel Prize in physics, which he shared with two other scientists, for the groundbreaking discovery of gravitational waves. He received a National Medal of Science in 2023. He earned both his bachelor’s degree in physics (1957) and his doctoral degree in experimental particle physics (1962) from UC Berkeley. He played a key leadership role in guiding the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) through its final design and contributed to its later discoveries. He became a member of the UC Riverside faculty in 2018.

Shan-Wen Tsai, chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, said Barish’s election to the APS is an extremely high honor recognizing his vast contributions to understanding the fundamental nature of our universe and the laws of physics that underlie them.

“Even beyond his work with the LIGO experiment, which made the first observation of gravitational waves as predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, Prof. Barish has made profound contributions to experimental efforts exploring both fundamental particle physics and cosmology and how both fields can be reconciled,” she said. “Prof. Barish continues this journey at UCR, where he created the Center for Experimental Cosmology and Instrumentation, which allows researchers at UCR to continue digging deeper into the universe’s greatest mysteries.”

Launched last year, the Center for Experimental Cosmology and Instrumentation, or CECI, addresses fundamental, deep, and timeless questions about the universe and its constituents while using and developing new cutting-edge technology. Barish directs the center.

Barish has received numerous prestigious honors, including the Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award (China), Princess of Asturias Prize (Spain), Cocconi Prize, Enrico Fermi Prize, and Klopsteg Award. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, which awarded him the Henry Draper Medal, and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A fellow and former president of the American Physical Society, he also holds a fellowship with the American Association for the Advancement of Science and honorary doctorates from several universities in Europe and the United States. Barish was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society in 2019, won the Copernicus Prize in 2022, and became a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona in 2023.

Newly-elected APS members join a long lineage that includes many of the nation’s founders —George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Marshall were all APS Members. In the 19th century, John James Audubon, Maria Mitchell, Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, and Louis Pasteur were among those elected. Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, and Sandra Day O’Connor hint at the scientific, humanistic, and public accomplishments of 20th-century members.

“Prof. Barish’s election to the APS is a great inspiration for the department and for CECI, as it highlights the importance of scholarship across the sciences and humanities, and of our shared pursuit of understanding — an endeavor that lies at the heart of the human experience and helps shape the educational and research missions of the university,” Tsai said.