Dear Volunteers,

I want to thank you for your continuing contributions to Einstein@Home, and to wish all of you a healthy and happy 2018.

The past year has seen several important steps forward, including publication of the first results from Einstein@Home searches in

advanced LIGO data, and the discovery of many new gamma ray pulsars in data from the Fermi satellite. More broadly, the LIGO and Virgo detectors had a wonderful finale to their second observing run: the simultaneous observation of gravitational and electromagnetic waves from the inspiral and merger of two neutron stars.

When Einstein@Home was launched in 2005, the search for gravitational waves was a highly speculative subject, and there were many sceptics. The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Barish, Thorne and Weiss "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves" shows just how far we have come.

The third LIGO/VIRGO observing run is expected to begin near the end of 2018. With the improving data and detection methods, and the

increasingly powerful computing resources being provided by you, I am optimistic that the first detection of continuous gravitational waves with Einstein@Home is not far in the future.

Thank you again for your support!

Bruce Allen

Einstein@Home Director

for the Einstein@Home team