LIGO Scientific Collaboration

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) is a scientific collaboration of international physics institutes and research groups dedicated to the search for gravitational waves.

History

The LSC was established in 1997, under the leadership of Barry Barish. 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.

LSC members have access to the US-based Advanced LIGO detectors in Hanford, Washington and in Livingston, Louisiana, as well as the GEO 600 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". The KAGRA observatory's collaboration has joined the LIGO-Virgo collective, and the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collective is called "LVK".

The LSC Spokesperson Template:Asof is Patrick Brady of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The Executive Director of the LIGO Laboratory is David Reitze from the University of Florida.

On 11 February 2016, the LIGO and Virgo collaborationsTemplate:Efn announced that they succeeded in making the first direct gravitational wave observation on 14 September 2015.

In 2016, Barish received the Enrico Fermi Prize "for his fundamental contributions to the formation of the LIGO and LIGO-Virgo scientific collaborations and for his role in addressing challenging technological and scientific aspects whose solution led to the first detection of gravitational waves".

Collaboration members

Membership of LIGO Scientific Collaboration as of November 2015 is detailed in this table:

Institution	Country	Members	Website
Abilene Christian University	Template:Flaglist	2
Albert-Einstein-Institute, Hannover	Template:Flaglist	79	Binary Merger Observations and Numerical Relativity, Laser Interferometry and Gravitational Wave Astronomy Template:Webarchive
Albert-Einstein-Institute, Potsdam-Golm	Template:Flaglist	21	Astrophysical and Cosmological Relativity Template:Webarchive
American University	Template:Flaglist	4
Andrews University	Template:Flaglist	6	Andrew University LIGO Template:Webarchive
Australian National University	Template:Flaglist	16	Centre for Gravitational Physics Template:Webarchive
California Institute of Technology	Template:Flaglist	93	LIGO Lab, Caltech LIGO Astrophysics
California State University, Fullerton	Template:Flaglist	15	Gravitational Wave Physics and Astronomy Center
Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics	Template:Flaglist	4	Gravitational waves
Cardiff University	Template:Flaglist	28	Gravity Exploration Institute
Carleton College	Template:Flaglist	8
Charles Sturt University	Template:Flaglist	1
Chennai Mathematical Institute	Template:Flaglist	1
College of William & Mary	Template:Flaglist	3
Columbia University	Template:Flaglist	8
Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University	Template:Flaglist	8
Eötvös Loránd University	Template:Flaglist	9	Eötvös Gravity Research Group
Georgia Institute of Technology	Template:Flaglist	20	Center for Relativistic Astrophysics
Goddard Space Flight Center	Template:Flaglist	5
Hanford Observatory	Template:Flaglist	38	LIGO Hanford
Hanyang University	Template:Flaglist	1
Hobart and William Smith Colleges	Template:Flaglist	4
IAP, Nizhny Novgorod	Template:Flaglist	8
ICTP-SAIFR	Template:Flaglist	1
ICTS-TIFR	Template:Flaglist	9
IISER-KOL	Template:Flaglist	3
IISER-TVM	Template:Flaglist	5
Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar	Template:Flaglist	3
IndIGO	Template:Flaglist	59	LIGO India
INPE	Template:Flaglist	6
IPR-Bhat	Template:Flaglist	10
IUCAA	Template:Flaglist	14
Kenyon College	Template:Flaglist	9
King's College London	Template:Flaglist	1
Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information	Template:Flaglist	4
Leibniz University Hannover	Template:Flaglist	8
Livingston Observatory	Template:Flaglist	35	LIGO Livingston
Louisiana State University	Template:Flaglist	16	Experimental & Theoretical General Relativity Template:Webarchive
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Template:Flaglist	35	MIT LIGO
Monash University	Template:Flaglist	9
Montana State University	Template:Flaglist	3	Gravitational Physics at MSU
Montclair State University	Template:Flaglist	3
Moscow State University	Template:Flaglist	11
National Institute of Mathematical Sciences	Template:Flaglist	4
National Tsing Hua University	Template:Flaglist	3
Northwestern University	Template:Flaglist	16	LIGO Scientific Collaboration
Penn State University	Template:Flaglist	7	Penn State LIGO group Template:Webarchive Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos
Pusan National University	Template:Flaglist	3
Rochester Institute of Technology	Template:Flaglist	13	Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation
RRCAT, Indore	Template:Flaglist	9
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory	Template:Flaglist	2	STFC Advanced LIGO
Seoul National University	Template:Flaglist	1
Sonoma State University	Template:Flaglist	5
Southern University	Template:Flaglist	1
Stanford University	Template:Flaglist	18	Stanford LIGO Group
Swinburne University of Technology	Template:Flaglist	12	ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery
Syracuse University	Template:Flaglist	31	Syracuse University Gravitational Wave Group
Texas Tech University	Template:Flaglist	8
The Chinese University of Hong Kong	Template:Flaglist	12
The University of Melbourne	Template:Flaglist	3
The University of Sheffield	Template:Flaglist	5
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research	Template:Flaglist	5
Trinity University	Template:Flaglist	2
Tsinghua University	Template:Flaglist	5
University of Alabama in Huntsville	Template:Flaglist	2
University of Adelaide	Template:Flaglist	4	Optics and Photonics Group
University of Birmingham	Template:Flaglist	29	Gravitational Wave Group
University of Brussels	Template:Flaglist	4	Precision Mechatronics Laboratory
University of Cambridge	Template:Flaglist	6	Gravitational waves
University of Chicago	Template:Flaglist	4
University of Florida	Template:Flaglist	26	LIGO at the University of Florida
University of Glasgow	Template:Flaglist	61	Institute for Gravitational Research
University of Guadalajara	Template:Flaglist	7
University of Hamburg	Template:Flaglist	6
University of Maryland	Template:Flaglist	7	Gravitation Experiment Group
University of Michigan	Template:Flaglist	10	Michigan Gravitational Wave Group
University of Minnesota	Template:Flaglist	5	LIGO at Minnesota Template:Webarchive
University of Mississippi	Template:Flaglist	10	The LIGO Team at The University of Mississippi
University of Oregon	Template:Flaglist	10
University of Sannio	Template:Flaglist	10
University of Santiago de Compostela	Template:Flaglist	6
University of Southampton	Template:Flaglist	2
University of Strathclyde	Template:Flaglist	3
University of Szeged	Template:Flaglist	3
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley	Template:Flaglist	22	Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy
University of Tokyo	Template:Flaglist	6	Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, Gravitational Wave Group
University of the Balearic Islands	Template:Flaglist	9	Relativity and Gravitation Group
University of Washington	Template:Flaglist	2
University of the West of Scotland	Template:Flaglist	4
University of Western Australia	Template:Flaglist	21
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee	Template:Flaglist	27	LIGO Scientific Collaboration Research Group Template:Webarchive
USC Information Sciences Institute	Template:Flaglist	3
Washington State University	Template:Flaglist	3
West Virginia University	Template:Flaglist	4
Whitman College	Template:Flaglist	3

External links

• Template:In lang
• LIGO Magazine