# Commencement Speaker
**Source**: https://commencement.caltech.edu/commencement-speaker
**Parent**: https://commencement.caltech.edu/
[Home](https://commencement.caltech.edu/)
/
Commencement Speaker
# Commencement Speaker
Related Pages
Kip Thorne (BS '62)—theoretical astrophysicist, distinguished alumnus, and Nobel laureate—will deliver 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](https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/gravitational-waves-detected-100-years-after-einsteins-prediction)—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)](https://ligo.caltech.edu/), 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."
[Read President Rosenbaum's announcement](https://www.caltech.edu/campus-life-events/campus-announcements/2026-commencement-speaker)
## News
[Ten Years Later, LIGO is a Black Hole Hunting Machine](https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/ten-years-later-ligo-is-a-black-hole-hunting-machine)
[100th Stargazing Lecture at Caltech Features Kip Thorne](https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/100th-stargazing-lecture-at-caltech)
[Warping Spacetime in Art and Verse](https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/warping-spacetime-in-art-and-verse)
[Kip Thorne Explains the Power of Gravitational Waves](https://magazine.caltech.edu/post/kip-thorne-video-black-hole-gravitational-waves)
[New Quantum Measurement Center Launched by Sherman Fairchild Foundation Grant](https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/new-quantum-measurement-center-launched-by-sherman-fairchild-foundation-grant)
[Kip Thorne: "My Half-Century Romance with Caltech and with Black Holes, Wormholes, Time Travel, and Gravitational Waves"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYMfQNNnP9M) (video)
[Kip Thorne Looks Back...and Ahead](https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/watson-lecture-preview-kip-thorne-85384)
[LIGO Founders Awarded Physics Nobel](https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/barish-and-thorne-awarded-nobel-prize-physics-52463)
[2016 Shaw Prize Awarded to LIGO Founders](https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/2016-shaw-prize-awarded-ligo-founders-50845)
[LIGO Team Wins Princess of Asturias Award](https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/ligo-team-wins-princess-asturias-award-78695)
[Kavli Prize Goes to LIGO Founders](https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/ligo-founders-receive-prestigious-kavli-prize-astrophysics-50878)
[LIGO Founders and Team Receive Cosmology Prize](https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/ligo-founders-and-team-receive-cosmology-prize-50727)
[LIGO Team Awarded Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics](https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/ligo-team-awarded-special-breakthrough-prize-fundamental-physics-50657)