This action provides funds for the LIGO Visitors Program at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). The LIGO Visitors Program supports visitors to the LIGO Laboratories, at all levels and ranks, who wish to become involved in the science and techniques associated with the detection of gravitational waves with interferometric techniques. Visitors contribute their accumulated skills and abilities to enhance the performance of the LIGO team.
The LIGO Laboratory Visitors Program is oriented towards activities at the LIGO Observatories at Hanford, WA, and Livingston, LA as well as at the Caltech or MIT LIGO Laboratories. The program has three parts: short term visits as short as one month; long term visits of six months or more; and international exchanges between the scientists from the VIRGO project in Europe and LIGO.
A agreement between the CNRS (Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique - France) and the National Science Foundation was implemented to fund an exchange program between VIRGO and LIGO for a three-year period. There is a mutual exchange of scientists and engineers associated with both projects. Each year, three group leaders, either from the LIGO Laboratory or the LIGO science community at large, visit VIRGO for about four days, and four working scientists associated with LIGO visit VIRGO for a minimum stay of at least two weeks. Similarly, VIRGO will send its scientists and engineers to visit LIGO sites.
