Kip S. Thorne

Kip S. Thorne is the Centennial Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech, awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for decisive contributions to gravitational wave detection through LIGO. His theoretical work enabled the first observation of gravitational waves from colliding black holes.

Research pillars include:

• Gravitational wave astrophysics
• General relativity predictions
• Black hole dynamics
• Interferometric detection methods

Thorne's collaborations with experimental physicists transformed theoretical predictions into observational astronomy techniques, founding the field of gravitational wave astronomy.