Illustration of the US theoretical physicist Kip Thorne (born 1940). Thorne has made important contributions to the theory and detection of gravitational waves and the understanding of black holes, spacetime and relativistic stars. He was cofounder of the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) experiment to detect gravitational waves. Along with his California Institute of Technology colleagues Rainer Weiss and Barry Barish, Thorne was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the LIGO experiment and the observation of gravitational waves. Gravitational waves are ripples in the curvature of spacetime that travel outward from a central source. They were predicted by Einstein in 1916, and remained undetected until observed by LIGO on the 14th September 2015.