Job Info
Employer:
Louisiana State University - LSU
Employer Home Page:
http://www.lsu.edu
Position Type:
Education
Research
Job skills:
Complex problem solving
Synthesizing information
Mathematical skills
Lab or instrumentation skills
Knowledge of physics principles
Modeling or simulation
Data analysis
Communication
Team work
Jorge Pullin's Job:
Pullin is a physicist who specializes in gravity and black holes. His time is divided between seeking to modify Einstein's theory of gravity to make it more compatible with quantum mechanics, and studying "gravitational waves." These waves are created when two black holes collide. To search for these waves, scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) look for distortions in the space surrounding two instrumental arms located in Louisiana and Washington State. Each arm is 2.5 miles long. Pullin's job it to figure out what these distortions would look like. "[LIGO scientists] would be quite happy if we theorists could come and tell them what sort of wave patterns they're supposed to see. That would make their lives easier when they tried to detect them."
Career Facts
Employer Type:
School/Academia
Current Location:
Baton Rouge, LA
Physics Degree:
Doctorate
Educational Information
M.Sc. in Physics from the Instituto Balseiro, Argentina
Ph.D. in Physics from the Instituto Balseiro, Argentina, completed at the University of Columbo
More about Jorge Pullin
Jorge Pullin's other interests:
Joge Pullin enjoys playing the bagpipe, an instrument he learned as a teenager. He is also married to Gabriela Gonzalez, a Professor at LSU who works at the LIGO Observatory for gravitational waves. You can find Gabriela's profile on our database at:
http://www.compadre.org/careers/physicists/detail.cfm?ID=3685
Jorge Pullin's home page:
http://www.phys.lsu.edu/faculty/pullin/
Direct link to Jorge Pullin's profile:
http://www.physicscentral.com/explore/people/pullin.cfm
Biography:
Jorge Pullin and his family are from the Scottish community of Buenos Aries, Argentina. As a kid, he enjoyed figuring out how things worked and he enjoyed playing with other things like electricity. He went to the University of Buenos Aries to study engineering, but later transferred to the Instituto Balsiero in Bariloche to study physics."I enjoy the freedom to investigate what I want, and to basically understand things, " After earning his degree there, he moved to the University of Cordoba to study gravitational physics. While in Cordoba, he met his future wife, Gabriela González, an Argentinian physicist in the same field. "I guess we are a living example that Einstein was wrong when he said that gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love, " Pullin said.
After completing his Ph.D. he did his Postdoc work in the United States, and was later hired as a faculty member by Penn State.
