[1] In 1972, Billing returned to his original field of physics, at the Max Planck Institute's new location at Garching near Munich.

[8] Beginning in 1972, Heinz Billing became involved in gravitational physics, when he tried to verify the detection claims made by American physicist Joseph Weber.

[2] In 1975, Billing acted on a proposal by Rainer Weiss from the Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT) to use laser interferometry to detect gravitational waves.

[9] From 1980 onward Billing commissioned the development and construction in MPA in Garching of a laser interferometer with an arm length of 30m.

[2][10][11][12][13] In 1987, Heinz Billing received the Konrad Zuse Medal for the invention of magnetic drum storage.