Stefan Ballmer

Research Interests
Third-generation gravitational-wave detector technology.
Quantum control of macroscopic objects.
Commissioning of Advanced LIGO.
Searching for a stochastic background of gravitational waves with Advanced LIGO.

Education
2006 Ph.D. in Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2000 Diploma in Physics, with honors in Theoretical Physics
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) – Zurich

Awards & Professional Honors
Robert A. Millikan Postdoctoral Prize Fellowship for Experimental Astrophysics (2006), California Institute of Technology
Honorable Mention, GWIC (Gravitational Wave International Committee) Thesis Prize (2006)

Selected Publications
J. Abadie et.al. , “Directional limits on persistent gravitational waves using LIGO S5 science data”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 271102 (2012).

S. Ballmer, S. Marka, P. Shawhan, “Feasibility of measuring the Shapiro time delay over meter-scale distances”, Class. Quantum Grav. 27 185018.

B. Abbott, et. al., “An upper limit on the stochastic gravitational-wave background of cosmological origin” Nature 460 (2009) 990.

E. Thrane, S. Ballmer, J. D. Romano, S. Mitra, D. Talukder, S. Bose, V. Mandic, “Probing the anisotropies of a stochastic gravitational-wave background using a network of ground-based laser interferometers” Phys. Rev. D80, 122002 (2009).

M. Evans, S. Ballmer, M. Fejer, P. Fritschel, G. Harry, G. Ogin “Thermo-optic noise in coated mirrors for high-precision optical measurements” Phys. Rev. D78, 102003 (2008).