Rate My Professor Peter Beyersdorf

Peter Beyersdorf is Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at San Jose State University (SJSU), as well as Director of the Institute for Modern Optics. He specializes in laser physics and precision measurements within the field of Physics. Beyersdorf earned his PhD in Physics from Stanford University in 2001, with his doctoral thesis titled “The Sagnac Interferometer for Gravitational Wave Detection,” providing the first comprehensive analysis of an interferometer configuration proposed by LIGO co-founder Rainer Weiss. After completing his doctorate, he continued research at Stanford's E. L. Ginzton Laboratory and then as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan until 2005. He joined SJSU as an Assistant Professor in 2006, progressing to Associate Professor and now full Professor.

Beyersdorf's research focuses on the development and testing of extremely sensitive measurement devices for gravitational wave detection, including small-scale prototypes of interferometer configurations central to LIGO detectors. A member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration from its inception until 2014, he contributed to advancements that enabled the first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015 from the merger of two black holes, confirming predictions of general relativity and earning association with the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics winners Rainer Weiss and Barry Barish. He has authored or co-authored 76 journal articles on gravitational wave detection, published the textbook Laboratory Optics: A Practical Guide to Working in an Optics Lab in 2014, and supervised over a dozen students, some of whom conducted research at LIGO Hanford. His publications have accumulated over 16,000 citations. At SJSU, Beyersdorf received the 2018 Outstanding Professor Award from the College of Science for excellence in teaching, research, and service, and he actively involves undergraduates in building interferometers and gravitational wave research programs.