Corey Gray

Corey Gray

Lead Operator, Caltech - LIGO (Washington)

BS, Dual Degrees in Physics and Applied Mathematics (1997)

Gray is the lead operator at LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) Hanford Observatory, and part of the group of researchers that confirmed the existence of gravitational waves, marking a major discovery for the fields of physics and astronomy.
He now manages the operator team for the detector in Washington that discovered the existence of gravitational waves produced by two colliding black holes. The finding, announced in 2016, supports Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and is considered one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the century.
Gray is a member of the team whose founders were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2017.
He was hired after graduation by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to work for LIGO’s observatory in Hanford, Washington, where he is also a science educator through the LIGO Education & Public Outreach Team.
At Humboldt State, Gray participated in the Indian Natural Resources, Science & Engineering Program and the American Indian Alliance. He is a member of the Siksika Nation (Northern Blackfoot) of Alberta, Canada. Gray has returned to Humboldt to give presentations, including at the 2015 American Indian College Motivation Days and the 2017 AISES Region 1 & 2 Conference.

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