Ybarra brings cosmic clocks to Drepung Loseling Monastery

Prof. Jason E. Ybarra, Teaching Assistant Professor in the WVU Department of Physics and Astronomy and Director of the WVU Planetarium and Observatory, recently visited the Drepung Loseling Monastery in Karnataka, India, to present the research being done in the WVU Department of Physics and Astronomy and the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) Collaboration on the detection of low-frequency gravitational waves.

The talk was titled “Cosmic Clocks: Using Pulsars to Detect Gravitational Waves.” 

The monastery runs the Drepung Loseling Meditation and Science Center  that offers Buddhist monks the opportunity to learn sciences, math and English as part of the Geshe degree curriculum. Audiences of the talk included year 6 and year 3 science monastics. Previously, Ybarra taught physics through the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative (ETSI) to year 4 monks in 2019 and year 4 nuns in 2021. Building on a valuable relationship with the students, leaders noted, “it was great to have them back to the Meditation and Science Center even though it was a short time."

Ybarra is currently developing outreach materials, including a planetarium film, on the science of pulsar timing arrays and gravitational wave detection. Ybarra’s other research interests include galactic star formation and the history of astronomy.