It’s not often someone gets a front-row seat to a history-making event that forever changes our understanding of the universe, but for Australian academic Dr Carl Blair, it was the ultimate case of being in the right place at the right time.

A decade ago, Blair, from the University of Western Australia’s school of physics, mathematics and computing, was in the thick of his PhD studies when he was called out to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory – or, LIGO – in the United States.

Dr Carl Blair, from UWA’s School of Physics, Mathematics and Computing and director of the Gingin High Optical Power facility. Credit: University of Western Australia

The observatory, comprising two sites, uses lasers fired at mirrors spaced kilometres apart to measure miniscule fluctuat

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