![]() Many of these courses bridge disciplines to spark unique perspectives and challenge students to solve problems in new and unexpected ways. The College of Arts and Science offers featured courses each semester to provide students the opportunity to engage with some of the most significant and pressing issues of our time. “When I saw this special session, I thought, ‘Wow, this is my way of fulfilling my childhood dreams.’” ![]() “This is why I decided to come to Vanderbilt-to have access to incredible professionals like Dr. Thorpe was equally impressed by Jani’s credentials and jumped at the opportunity to learn from him. “Where else (other) than Vanderbilt can you take a class that has a guy of this level and at this young age?” “Professor Jani was on the team that discovered gravitational waves,” said Fortner, who graduated in May 2023 with a degree in mechanical engineering. The course is focused on his research specialty of black holes and gravitational waves. Jani created the course ASTR 3890: Black Holes in Our Universe and opened it to all undergraduates with no prerequisites. He welcomes student workers, but because so many undergraduates across Vanderbilt express an interest in space, he feels called to share his research with a wider audience-what he calls a “renaissance and revolution in astronomy.” Karan Jani (center) and students from ASTR 3890: Black Holes in Our Universe, learned a lot and had fun! (Submitted photo) Jani said most of his time is spent doing research in his lab. “”The quietness on the moon is almost spiritual, opening our learning to new cosmic sounds, which can neither be accessed on earth or in space.” SHARING ASTRONOMY “A gravitational wave experiment is so sensitive that an earthquake in Australia impacts our measurement in Louisiana,” Jani said. LILA will access lower frequencies of gravitational waves, which cannot be accessed by LIGO because of earth’s seismic noise. Gravitational wave experiments need complete silence to be fully successful, Jani said. He is leading a global team of experts and industry partners, including NASA, to build the Laser Interferometer Lunar Antenna-a first-of-its-kind experiment on the surface of the moon. Jani continues his cutting-edge work on black holes and gravitational waves as head of Vanderbilt’s Lunar Labs Initiative. LUNAR LABS INITIATIVE Karan Jani’s experiments will travel with NASA on its Artemis moon mission. The observatories are designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves and enable multi-messenger observations to understand what happens when black holes collide. LIGO Livingston is one of two such observatories in the United States and spans roughly six square miles in Livingston, Louisiana. Jani worked with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, better known as LIGO, on the discovery. Their discovery of gravitational waves led to the team receiving the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2016, and Jani was named a Top 30 Under 30 by Forbes magazine. Einstein surmised that there are gravitational waves in space caused by massive movement that creates ripples in the “fabric” of space-time.Ī century after Einstein first revealed his theory, Jani and his colleagues found proof. Jani was specifically driven to research Albert Einstein’s 1916 Theory of General Relativity. Representation of a gravitational wave used in student website project (Submitted) NASA describes a black hole as being “a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out.” When black holes collide and merge, this violent process sends ripples surging through the fabric of space, making gravitational waves. Jani, assistant professor of physics and astronomy and Cornelius Vanderbilt Dean’s Faculty Fellow, said his own childhood dreams of space led him to dive into physics after high school, with a focus on black holes and gravitational waves. These students and others with diverse majors may not become astronauts or astronomers, but they were given an opportunity to join a special class led by Vanderbilt astrophysicist Karan Jani, one of the scientists who discovered gravitational waves. Karan Jani, assistant professor of physics and astronomy (Vanderbilt University) Law, history and society major Ethan Thorpe had similar notions throughout his childhood, scouring astronomy websites and imagining life as an astrophysicist. Engineering major Adam Fortner has spent many nights camping outside his Kentucky home, staring up at the stars and dreaming about space.
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