Dr Niels Warburton elected as head of LISA Consortium to support space mission
7 November 2025
(opens in a new window)Dr Niels Warburton from the UCD School of Mathematics and Statistics has been elected as Spokesperson of the LISA Consortium, an international collaboration of around 1000 scientists working to support the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission.
The focus of the space mission is to detect gravitational waves – tiny ripples in the fabric of space and time – that are sourced by extreme events in the universe, such as the merger of supermassive black holes.
Led by the ESA, the LISA Mission is a collaboration between the ESA, NASA, the space agencies of EU member states, and the LISA Consortium. It is the first ever scientific endeavour to detect gravitational waves from space.
“I’ve worked on LISA science for my entire research career, and so it’s a great honour to have been elected as the Spokesperson for the new LISA Consortium,” said Dr Warburton.
“With the adoption of LISA by the ESA in 2024, it’s an exciting time for the mission. There’s a lot of energy in the community and everyone I know who works on the mission or its science objectives is extremely busy preparing for LISA.
“Over the next two years, I look forward to working with and growing this community of over a thousand scientists, researchers and engineers.”
Last year, the (opens in a new window)UCD Relativity Group hosted 400 researchers at the university for the 2024 International LISA Symposium.
The UCD Relativity Group is a group of researchers from the School of Mathematics and Statistics dedicated to advancing research in black holes, gravitational waves and related areas of theoretical physics. It is part of LISA Ireland, a wider national group working on the mission.
UCD Relativity Group member (opens in a new window)Dr Chris Kavanagh was recently elected as the co-chair of the LISA Consortium Waveform Working Group, a team of scientists who develop and test models of the gravitational wave signals that the LISA space mission will detect.
(opens in a new window)Dr Barry Wardell, another member of the group, was recently awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant for his work on the LISA mission.
By: Rebecca Hastings, Digital Journalist, UCD University Relations
To contact the UCD News & Content Team, email: newsdesk@ucd.ie
