Silke Weinfurtner

She earned her PhD from the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, studying under the supervision of physicist Matt Visser.Weinfurtner traces the origin of the technique to her time working at the International School for Advanced Studies in Italy where she "setup an experiment with a bucket and a bidet".[3][4] Her research focuses on trying to mimic the conditions of the Big Bang, using superconducting magnets in a large bathtub to simulate cosmological effects.[5] Comparing real black holes with her analog gravity experiments, Weinfurtner expresses wonder that the "startling mathematical similarities between them that emerge under certain conditions can be exploited", saying that "it just seems like nature threw us a bone when things are really hard".[6] By decreasing the temperature in the water bath, Weinfurtner and her team were able to create a Bose-Einstein condensate, mimicking wave propagation in the early universe.
Technical University of MunichMax Planck Institute of Quantum OpticsVictoria University of WellingtonBuchalter Cosmology PrizeQuantum gravityAnalog gravityUniversity of NottinghamDoctoral advisorMatt VisserGermanBritishphysicistblack holestheoretical physicsGarching, GermanyIgnacio Ciracwater bathInternational School for Advanced StudiespostdocBill UnruhUnruh effectBig Bangsuperconducting magnetsBose-Einstein condensatewave propagationPhysical ReviewBibcodeEurekAlert.orgThe GuardianUniversity of Minnesota PressQuanta MagazinePhys.orgAcademiaNetDutch Research CouncilUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill