Corey Gray – LIGO Lead Operator

Corey Gray is Scottish & Blackfoot and a member of the Siksika Nation of Alberta, Canada. He grew up in southern California and received Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics and Applied Mathematics from Cal Poly Humboldt. After undergrad, he was hired by Caltech to work for the astronomy project, LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory) at the LIGO Hanford Observatory in Washington State. At LIGO, Corey has worked on teams to both build and operate gravitational wave detectors since 1998. The LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) made historic news in 2016 by announcing the FIRST direct detection of gravitational waves, which helped prove a prediction made 100 years earlier by Albert Einstein! This also garnered the founders of LIGO the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2017. The LIGO, Virgo, & KAGRA collaborations are currently up to a total of 90 gravitational wave detections! Corey enjoys & appreciates the importance of science communication. Over the years he has given keynotes, plenary talks, public colloquia and a TEDx talk. He especially loves to share the science of Einstein with Indigenous youth and other underrepresented groups. Corey is currently serving as a juror for the National Academy of Science’s “Awards for Excellence in Science Communication”. Corey is proud to be Indigenous. He recruited Sharon Yellowfly (his mom) to translate LIGO scientific documents into the Blackfoot language. In his free time, Corey likes to backpack, travel, salsa dance, cross-country ski, go to pow wows, share science with the public, and kayak (with a wooden kayak he built).

Join the Zoom Webinar:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88488921148?pwd=aUFOTXhvcmpKajFucmdMRzBkZVAwUT09