Dr. Joris van Heijningen is an experienced instrumental researcher that has worked in nuclear physics, particle physics and gravitational waves (GWs). After studying Applied Physics at the Delft University of Technology, where he worked at CERN and SLAC, his Ph.D. at Nikhef / Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam involved projects at the Virgo and KAGRA GW observatories. The Ph.D. highlights have been the development of the world’s most sensitive inertial sensor and the commissioning of the suspension of Virgo's optical tables, one of which housed the photodiodes that caught Virgo's first GW signals.
His first postdoc at the University of Western Australia involved projects on Euler spring vibration isolation, optical mode matching and GW detector modelling, as well as teaching particle physics and designing a new course in GW instrumentation. His previous position was at UCLouvain, Belgium, where he worked as a Research Scientist on several projects for Einstein Telescope, the Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna and Advanced Virgo. Lastly, the timing of the first detection of GWs in 2015 gave the first opportunities for outreach. That led to 20+ public seminars and a national TV appearance in the Netherlands. Dr. van Heijningen continues to search out opportunities to interact with the public.
