David Blair (physicist)

David Blair
David Blair giving a seminar about gravitational waves search in ICRANet, Pescara, in April 2014
Born	(1946-11-26) 26 November 1946 (age 79) Lymington, Hampshire, England, UK
Alma mater	University of Western Australia University of East Anglia
Awards	Prime Minister's Prize for Science (2020) RSWA Medal (2018) ANZAAS Medal (2005) Eureka Prize (2005) Walter Boas Medal (1995)
Scientific career
Institutions	University of Western Australia

David Gerald Blair (born 26 November 1946) is an Australian physicist and professor at the University of Western Australia and Director of the Australian International Gravitational Research Centre. Blair works on methods for the detection of gravitational waves. ^[1] He developed the niobium bar gravitational wave detector NIOBE, ^[2] which achieved the lowest observed noise temperature, and participated in a worldwide collaboration that set the best limit on the burst events in 2001. He has been responsible for numerous innovations including the 1984 invention of the first sapphire clock, a super-precise timepiece designed for space, as well as underpinning the research of the Frequency Stability Group at The University of Western Australia.

In 2003, together with John Robert de Laeter, Blair founded the Gravity Discovery Centre, a major centre for the promotion of science in Western Australia. ^[3] In 2010, Blair and collaborating partners developed an educational research program called the Science Education Enrichment Project, ^[4] to research the benefits of specialist exhibition centres such as the Gravity Discovery Centre. In 2014, Blair led the Einstein-First Project which aims to introduce Einsteinian Physics at an early age. The project partners included Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, Graham (Polly) Farmer Foundation, U.S. Air Force Academy and the Gravity Discovery Centre.

Early life

Born in Lymington, Hampshire, England in 1946, his family emigrated to Australia in 1950. ^[5] He received a bachelor of science degree from the University of Western Australia in 1968 ^[6] and a PhD from the University of East Anglia in 1973, where he investigated superfluidity in liquid helium. ^{[7] [8]}

Honours and recognition

He was awarded the Prime Minister's Prize for Science in 2020, and received a share - as a contributor - of the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2016. ^[9] He received the RSWA Medal from the Royal Society of Western Australia in 2018, ^[10] the ANZAAS Medal from the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science in 2005, ^[9] the Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science in 2005, ^[11] and the Walter Boas Medal from the Australian Institute of Physics in 1995. ^[12] He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2013, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2018. ^[13]

Publications

Professor Blair is the co-author of Ripples on a Cosmic Sea: The Search for Gravitational Waves, ^[14] and the editor of the book The Detection of Gravitational Waves. ^[15]

He has also written a science fiction novel about a post-apopalytic Earth where contact is made to a galactic community via the essentially one-way communication starstream network. ^[16] Faster than light travel or communication is assumed to be impossible, in accord with current scientific theories.

References

• Presentation of the ANZAAS medal to Professor David Blair Archived 23 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine

1. "Researchers in new gravity measurement breakthrough". University of Western Australia. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
2. Blair, D.; Ivanov, E.; Tobar, M.; Turner, P.; Van Kann, F.; Heng, I. (1995). "High Sensitivity Gravitational Wave Antenna with Parametric Transducer Readout". Physical Review Letters. 74 (11): 1908–1911. Bibcode:1995PhRvL..74.1908B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.74.1908. PMID   10057794.
3. "The Gravity Discovery Centre Discover a new Universe". Archived from the original on 22 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
4. "The Science Education Enrichment Project". Archived from the original on 22 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
5. "Blair, David Gerald (1946 - )". Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation . Retrieved 29 January 2026.
6. "Convocation - 50th Reunion UWA Graduates 1968" (PDF). University of Western Australia . Retrieved 29 January 2026.
7. "Radiophysics, Astrophysics and Gravitation Session - Dr. Blair". The Australian Physicist. Vol. 17, no. 7. Australian Institute of Physics. August 1980. p. 111.
8. "David G. Blair". INSPIRE-HEP . Retrieved 29 January 2026.
9. "David Blair". University of Western Australia . Retrieved 29 January 2026.
10. "Past Recipients". Royal Society of Western Australia . Retrieved 29 January 2026.
11. "Eureka Prizes: 2005 Winner". Australian Museum. Archived from the original on 15 March 2011. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
12. "Walter Boas Medal". Australian Institute of Physics. Archived from the original on 17 March 2012. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
13. "Emeritus Professor David Blair | Australian Academy of Science". www.science.org.au. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
14. Blair, David; McNamara, Geoff (7 April 1999). Ripples on a Cosmic Sea: The Search for Gravitational Waves. Basic Books. ISBN   9780738201375 . Retrieved 11 May 2012.
15. Blair, David (2005). The detection of gravitational waves (Digitally printed first paperback version ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9780511600104 . Retrieved 21 December 2025.
16. Blair, David (2023). Starstream. Amazon Kindle Edition. ISBN   9781922781079 . Retrieved 21 December 2025.