Special Events

Colloquium with the Department of Physics University of Alberta

Friday, December 3, 2021 at 3:15 PM (MST)

Register for the Zoom Webinar at Eventbrite

Blackfoot Poetry: From Einstein to Spacetime

Corey Gray

Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory
Richland, Washington

With a cast of characters including Albert Einstein, a pair of black holes, 1200 people from a large scientific collaboration, the Nobel Prize, and my mom, get the down low on a scientific event a century in the making (actually 1.3 billion years)! The first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015 is a story which made history at the speed of light and changed the lives of many of us just as fast. My journey from a kid growing up outside of LA to working at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) has many chapters as all our lives do. I will share what it has been like to be a Niitsitapi (Native American) in physics by chronicling my undergrad experience in the redwoods of northern California, to working on a project which is now a part of history & gave birth to the new field of gravitational wave astronomy! Additionally, I will also talk about how a shy, quiet, and “reluctant public speaker” has learned to embrace science communication by connecting science with Blackfoot culture and forcing his mom to work with him! I will talk about why it is vitally important for all of us to share our story and to make science personal.

About Corey:

Corey Gray is Scottish & Blackfoot and a member of the Siksika Nation of Alberta, Canada. He grew up in southern California and received Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics and Applied Mathematics from Humboldt State University (HSU).

After undergrad, he was hired as a Detector Operator by Caltech in 1998 to work for the astronomy project, LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) in Washington State. At LIGO, Corey worked on teams to both build and operate gravitational wave detectors.

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) made historic news in 2016 by announcing the first direct detection of gravitational waves, which helps prove a prediction made 100 years earlier by Albert Einstein!

In his free time, Corey likes to backpack, travel, salsa dance, cross-country ski, watch films, share science with the public, and kayak (with wooden kayak he recently built).