2026 Commencement Speaker Kip S. Thorne (BS '62)

Kip Thorne (BS '62) — theoretical physicist, distinguished alumnus, and Nobel laureate — delivered the keynote address at Caltech's 132nd annual Commencement ceremony on June 12, 2026.

Thorne was a seminal figure in the discovery of gravitational waves – ripples in the fabric of space and time that provide an unprecedented window into the physics of some of the most energetic events in the universe involving black holes and neutron stars.

Focusing his career on the "warped side of the universe," a phrase he coined while at Caltech, Thorne was critical in helping conceive and develop the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), a collaboration between Caltech and MIT funded by the National Science Foundation. He also led theoretical studies to estimate the frequencies of the waves that would be produced by massive objects in our universe, predict the strongest sources of gravitational waves, and explore the information that might be extracted from the waves. The most sensitive instrument ever built, LIGO now detects and characterizes several black hole mergers each week!

"Kip's extraordinary career is a testament to his intellectual passion and capacious vision," said President Thomas F. Rosenbaum, the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor of physics. "He is a generous colleague, dedicated to Caltech students and faculty alike. Kip's agreement to speak at the Institute's 2026 graduation ceremonies, my last, could not provide a more significant statement about the values of scholarship and humanity to which we all aspire."

More info: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/caltech-celebrates-graduates-at-132nd-commencement