LIGO Scientific Collaboration

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) is a group of scientists from many countries who work together to find gravitational waves. These are tiny ripples in space caused by big events in the universe, like stars colliding. The LSC works with the LIGO Laboratory, which is based at the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The LIGO Laboratory built and runs special observatories to detect these ripples.

The LSC helps make better tools to find these waves, collects data from the LIGO observatories and another detector called GEO600, and checks the data to make sure it is correct. They also study the data to learn new things about the universe and share their findings with the world. As of 2025, the leader of the LSC is Stephen Fairhurst from Cardiff University.

History

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration, or LSC, began in 1997 to help scientists work together on studying gravitational waves. It makes sure that everyone has fair chances to join in the research and share their findings. Scientists from many places around the world are part of this group.

Members of the LSC can use special tools, called detectors, in places like Hanford, Washington, Livingston, Louisiana, and Sarstedt, Germany. They also work with scientists in Italy to share information from another detector there. In 2016, these teams made an important discovery: they observed gravitational waves for the very first time. This was a big moment for science!

Collaboration leaders

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