Caltech Associates Travel Program

The Caltech Associates Travel Program is designed for the intellectually curious traveler who enjoys unique destinations and five-star amenities. Each experience is enhanced by a Caltech faculty guide whose expertise will illuminate the journey.

We work with premier tour operators to prepare itineraries incorporating the locale's scientific, cultural, and historical highlights. We frequently enjoy exclusive, private access to laboratories, museums, observatories, and other facilities not readily available to the general public. Every detail is arranged so that you may immerse yourself in the adventure.

President's Circle members receive priority registration for Associates travel, and some trips are exclusive to President's Circle members. You can upgrade your membership at any time to enjoy these unique opportunities.

LIGO: Ripples in Space-Time

November 3 to 6, 2025

Join us for an exclusive tour of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), where history was made on September 14, 2015. The twin LIGO detectors in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana, made an incredible breakthrough when they both detected gravitational waves produced by the merger of two black holes. Albert Einstein had predicted gravitational waves in his 1915 general theory of relativity, and this observation by LIGO confirmed the prediction 100 years later.

In 2017, MIT's Rainer Weiss and Caltech's Barry C. Barish, the Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Physics, Emeritus, and Kip S. Thorne, the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus, jointly received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves." We will tour the facility with Rana Adhikari, professor of physics, and Yanbei Chen (PhD '03), professor of physics, who earned his doctorate under the supervision of Professor Thorne.

We will also visit the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a leading center for scientific discovery in chemistry, data analytics, Earth science, and sustainable energy. The itinerary includes experiential lunches and private wine tastings at three local wineries.

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Iceland and Greenland

June 8 to 17, 2026

Embark with us aboard a luxurious cruise ship to circumnavigate Iceland and explore the eastern coast of Greenland on an unforgettable adventure at the edge of the Arctic. Our faculty guide will be Zhongwen Zhan, professor of geophysics and the Clarence R. Allen Leadership Chair and director of the Caltech Seismological Laboratory. His expertise will illuminate the powerful, primal forces that continue to forge and reshape this magnificent landscape.

Our journey begins in the remote Westfjords region of Iceland, where we'll hike along the base of a fjord, discover a towering waterfall and breathtaking views, and encounter various wildlife. We'll visit Siglufjörður, the center of Iceland's once-thriving herring industry, to experience Icelandic culture.

Across the Denmark Strait lie the rugged shores of Greenland, where tidewater glaciers calve off the country's vast ice cap. If conditions permit, we'll explore the coast by Zodiac boat.

In the Highlands of northern Iceland, we'll travel to Húsavík, gateway to geological wonders like Goðafoss Waterfall, Lake Mývatn, Ásbyrgi Canyon, and Dettifoss Waterfall. We'll also cruise the coastlines of the Westman Islands, which were formed by undersea volcanoes between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago and are among the world's youngest archipelagos.

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