Ever wonder what's happening in the classroom down the hall or the lab two buildings over? We do too — and we're doing something about it.

The A&S communications team is making its way across the College — into labs, offices, archives and classrooms — to meet our accomplished colleagues and introduce them to you. With hundreds of faculty and staff across dozens of departments and centers, there's no shortage of remarkable people and projects to discover.

Recent stop: the physics lab of Georgia Mansell, assistant professor.

Mansell is part of Syracuse University's Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and Astrophysics, which includes a team of scientists using lasers and precision optics to detect the ripples in spacetime produced by cataclysmic cosmic events such as colliding black holes and merging neutron stars. The extraordinarily sensitive devices being designed and tested on the Syracuse campus allow scientists to essentially "listen" to the universe, helping researchers tackle some of the biggest questions in astrophysics and bringing us closer to understanding how the cosmos works at its deepest level.

What we found: A room full of optical tables covered in precisely arranged lenses and mirrors, clean-room protocols (Yes, that’s us with the hair nets and shoe covers. Dust is the enemy of instruments this sensitive.), and prototype equipment modeled after some of the most sophisticated observatories on the planet, including LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.

Mansell has been part of many key gravitational-wave research projects: she helped commission the advanced LIGO detectors for observing runs. Now she's contributing to the next big thing— a next-generation observatory called Cosmic Explorer, being designed in part right here at Syracuse University.

The A&S communications team spotlights faces and spaces across the College. Where should we visit next? What faculty or staff member do you think your colleagues should read about? Reach out through our contact form for consideration.