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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