Cliff Will, UF Physics (Winner of the 2019 Albert Einstein Medal)

Is Einstein Still Right?

Einstein formulated general relativity just over 100 years ago. Although it is generally considered a great triumph, the theory’s early years were characterized by conceptual confusion, empirical uncertainties and a lack of relevance to ordinary physics. But in recent decades, a remarkably diverse set of precision experiments has established it as the “standard model” for gravitational physics.  Yet it might not be the final word. We review a century of measurements that have verified general relativity, including the recent detections of gravitational waves, and describe some of the opportunities and challenges involved in testing Einstein’s great theory in new regimes of strong fields and gravitational radiation.