LIGO Scientific Collaboration

For LIGO observatories, see LIGO.
LIGO Scientific Collaboration
Formation1997[1]
Membership1659 scientists[2]
LSC Spokesperson
Stephen Fairhurst
Award(s)Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2016)
Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2016)
Bruno Rossi Prize (2017)
Albert Einstein Medal (2017)
Princess of Asturias Award (2017)
Websitewww.ligo.org

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) is a scientific collaboration of international physics institutes and research groups dedicated to the search for gravitational waves. It complements the LIGO Laboratory, an organization based at the California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology which constructed and now operates the LIGO observatories. The LSC contributes to developing detector technologies, assists with collecting and validating data from the LIGO and GEO600 detectors, and is responsible for analyzing the data and publishing scientific results. The LSC is led by a Spokesperson, which as of 2025 is Stephen Fairhurst of Cardiff University.

History

The LSC was established in 1997 as part of a reorganization of the LIGO Project under the leadership of Barry Barish.[3] Its mission is to ensure equal scientific opportunity for individual participants and institutions by organizing research, publications, and all other scientific activities, and it includes scientists from both LIGO Laboratory and collaborating institutions. Barish appointed Rainer Weiss as the first spokesperson. Subsequent spokespersons have been elected by members of the LSC.

LSC members have access to the US-based Advanced LIGO detectors in Hanford, Washington and in Livingston, Louisiana, as well as the GEO600 detector in Sarstedt, Germany. Under an agreement with the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO), LSC members also have access to data from the Virgo detector in Pisa, Italy. While the LSC and the Virgo Collaboration are separate organizations, they cooperate closely and are referred to collectively as "LVC".[4] In 2019, the Japanese KAGRA collaboration signed an agreement to collaborate with the LSC and Virgo[5] and the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collective is called "LVK".

On 11 February 2016, the LIGO and Virgo collaborations[a] announced that they succeeded in making the first direct gravitational wave observation on 14 September 2015.[6][7][8][9]

Collaboration leaders

Spokespersons of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, with Assistant or Deputy Spokespersons (when one was appointed)
Spokesperson Name Term of office Deputy or Assistant Notes
Rainer Weiss 1997-2003 none
Peter Saulson 2003-2007 none
David Reitze 2007-2011 none
Gabriela González 2011-2017 Marco Cavaglià, Assistant (2013-2017)
David Shoemaker[10] 2017-2019 Laura Cadonati, Deputy (2017-2019)
Patrick Brady[11] 2019-2025 Jess McIver, Deputy (2023-2025)
Stephen Fairhurst[12] 2025-2027 Peter Shawhan, Deputy (2025-2027)

Collaboration member groups

Institutional members of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration as of July 2025, from public summary of the LSC roster https://my.ligo.org/census.php

Institution Country Website featuring LIGO research
Albert-Einstein-Institut, Hannover  Germany Binary Merger Observations and Numerical Relativity, Laser Interferometry and Gravitational Wave Astronomy
Albert-Einstein-Institut, Potsdam-Golm  Germany Astrophysical and Cosmological Relativity
American University  United States
Australian National University  Australia Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics
Bard College  United States
Bar-Ilan University  Israel
Barry University  United States
California Institute of Technology  United States LIGO Lab, Caltech LIGO Astrophysics
California State University, Fullerton  United States Gravitational Wave Physics and Astronomy Center
California State University, Los Angeles  United States
Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics  Canada
Cardiff University  United Kingdom Gravity Exploration Institute
Carleton College  United States
Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute  India
Charles Sturt University  Australia
Chennai Mathematical Institute  India
Chinese University of Hong Kong  Hong Kong
Christopher Newport University  United States
Chung-Ang University  South Korea
Colorado State University  United States
Concordia University Wisconsin  United States
Cornell University  United States
Directorate of Construction Services and Estate Management, Department of Atomic Energy  India
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University  United States
Eötvös Loránd University  Hungary Eötvös Gravity Research Group
Ewha Womans University  South Korea
Georgia Institute of Technology  United States Center for Relativistic Astrophysics
Goddard Space Flight Center  United States
Government Victoria College, Palakkad  India
Haverford College  United States
Helmut Schmidt University  Germany
Hobart and William Smith Colleges  United States
International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research  India
Instituto de Física Teórica (IFT), São Paulo State University  Brazil
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay  India
Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar  India
Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad  India
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras  India
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata  India
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune  India
Inje University  South Korea
Institut de Física d'Altes Energies  Spain
Institute for Plasma Research, Bhat  India
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais  Brazil
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics  India
Johns Hopkins University  United States
Kennesaw State University  United States
Kenyon College  United States
King's College London, University of London  United Kingdom
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute  South Korea
Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information  South Korea
Leibniz University Hannover  Germany
LIGO Hanford Observatory  United States LIGO Hanford Observatory website
LIGO Livingston Observatory  United States LIGO Livingston Observatory website
Louisiana State University  United States Experimental & Theoretical General Relativity
Maastricht University  Netherlands
Marquette University  United States
Marshall Space Flight Center  United States
Massachusetts Institute of Technology  United States MIT LIGO
Missouri University of Science and Technology  United States
Monash University  Australia
Montana State University  United States Gravitational Physics at MSU
Montclair State University  United States
Moscow State University  Russia
Nagoya University  Japan
National Central University  Taiwan
National Institute for Mathematical Sciences  South Korea
National Institute of Technology Calicut  India
National Tsing Hua University  Taiwan
Niels Bohr Institute  Denmark
Northeastern University  United States
Northwestern University  United States Gravitational Waves & Multi-Messenger Astronomy
Pennsylvania State University  United States Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos members in LIGO
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics  Canada
Queen Mary University of London  United Kingdom
Rochester Institute of Technology  United States Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation
Royal Holloway, University of London  United Kingdom
Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology  India
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory  United Kingdom
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics  India
Seoul National University  South Korea
Sonoma State University  United States
Stanford University  United States Stanford LIGO Group
Stony Brook University, Center for Computational Astrophysics  United States
St. Thomas University (Florida)  United States
Sungkyunkwan University  South Korea
Swinburne University  Australia ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery
Syracuse University  United States Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and Astrophysics
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai  India
Technical University of Braunschweig  Germany
Trinity College (Connecticut)  United States
Tsinghua University  China
University College London  United Kingdom
University of Adelaide  Australia
University of Antioquia  Spain
University of Arizona  United States
University of Arkansas  United States
University of Birmingham  United Kingdom Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy
University of British Columbia  Canada
University of Brussels  Belgium Precision Mechatronics Laboratory
University of California, Berkeley  United States
University of California, Davis  United States
University of California, Riverside  United States
University of Cambridge  United Kingdom Institute of Astronomy - Cosmology and Fundamental Physics
University of Chicago  United States
University of Florida  United States University of Florida Astrophysics
University of Glasgow  United Kingdom Institute for Gravitational Research
University of Guadalajara  Mexico
University of Hamburg  Germany
University of Manitoba  Canada
University of Maryland, Baltimore County  United States
University of Maryland, College Park  United States Gravitation Experiment Group
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth  United States
University of Melbourne  Australia
University of Michigan  United States Michigan Gravitational Wave Group
University of Minnesota  United States LIGO@UMN
University of Mississippi  United States
University of Montréal / Polytechnique  Canada
University of Nevada, Las Vegas  United States
University of Nottingham  United Kingdom
University of Oregon  United States
University of Portsmouth  United Kingdom
University of Rhode Island  United States
University of Sannio  Italy
University of Santiago de Compostela  Spain
University of Sheffield  United Kingdom
University of Southampton  United Kingdom
University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute  United States
University of Stavanger  Norway
University of Strathclyde  United Kingdom
University of Szeged  Hungary
University of Texas at Austin  United States
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley  United States Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy
University of the Balearic Islands  Spain Relativity and Gravitation Group
University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, International Centre for Theoretical Physics Asia-Pacific  China
University of the West of Scotland  United Kingdom
University of Tokyo  Japan Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, Gravitational Wave Group
University of Utah  United States
University of Warwick  United Kingdom
University of Washington  United States
University of Washington Bothell  United States
University of Western Australia  Australia
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee  United States Center for Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics
University of Zurich  Switzerland
Vanderbilt University  United States
Villanova University  United States
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam  Netherlands
Washington State University  United States
Western Washington University  United States

Notes

  1. ^ The 11 February 2016 announcement team were Kip Thorne, David Reitze, Gabriela González, and Rainer Weiss.

References

  1. ^ "About the LSC". LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  2. ^ "LSC/Virgo Census". myLIGO. Retrieved 13 July 2025.
  3. ^ Setting Priorities for Large Research Facility Projects Supported by the National Science Foundation. National Academies Press. 2004. pp. 129–136.
  4. ^ Gabriela González; Fulvio Ricci; et al. (LIGO Scientific and Virgo Collaborations) (2015-12-06). "Open call for partnership for the EM identification and follow-up of GW candidate events" (PDF). Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  5. ^ Whitney Clavin (2019-10-04). "KAGRA to Join LIGO and Virgo in Hunt for Gravitational Waves". Retrieved 2025-07-13.
  6. ^ Twilley, Nicola. "Gravitational Waves Exist: The Inside Story of How Scientists Finally Found Them". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2016-02-11.
  7. ^ Abbott, B.P.; et al. (2016). "Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger". Phys. Rev. Lett. 116 (6): 061102. arXiv:1602.03837. Bibcode:2016PhRvL.116f1102A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102. PMID 26918975. S2CID 119286014.
  8. ^ Naeye, Robert (11 February 2016). "Gravitational Wave Detection Heralds New Era of Science". Sky and Telescope. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  9. ^ Castelvecchi, Davide; Witze, Alexandra (11 February 2016). "Einstein's gravitational waves found at last". Nature News. doi:10.1038/nature.2016.19361. S2CID 182916902. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  10. ^ "LIGO Scientific Collaboration Elects David Shoemaker as Spokesperson". 2017-03-31. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
  11. ^ "UW-Milwaukee astrophysicist elected spokesperson of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration | Newswise: News for Journalists". www.newswise.com. Retrieved 2019-04-11.
  12. ^ "Cardiff scientist elected to lead global gravitational-wave collaboration". 2025-05-19. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
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