Professor Robert Ward is an expert in quantum precision measurement and gravitational wave detection.   He began research into gravitational wave detection in 2004, receiving his PhD from the California Institute of Technology in 2010 for experimental work prototyping the Advanced LIGO interferometers that first detected gravitational waves in 2015, as well as analysing LIGO data to search for stochastic gravitational waves.  He undertook postdoctoral research at the CNRS as a member of the Virgo gravitational wave collaboration, completing the optical design of the Advanced Virgo gravitational wave detector.  In 2011, he joined the ANU Centre for Gravitational Physics where he worked on commissioning the Advanced LIGO detectors, led and conducted research to mitigate the seismic, thermal and quantum noises limiting gravitational wave detectors, including quantum enhancement methods and techniques, and established new education programs for instrumentation and measurement.  While at the ANU he also established the Australian research effort for the Breakthrough Starshot program.  In March 2025, he became Director of the ANU Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics.