Oli Patane

"I've been into space since elementary school, where I had the privilege of being able to attend a NASA Explorer School, which focused heavily on science, especially astronomy. From there, I wanted to do some kind of astronomy or physics related research, and when I was approached by my advisor Josh Smith about joining his research team, I was really excited. I had only heard a bit about LIGO and gravitational waves before that, so it was really amazing being able to learn just what LIGO is by contributing to the research being done. I would love to find out more about what goes on inside black holes, and just more about our universe in general."

Oli Patane is an undergraduate at Cal State Fullerton who identifies as transgender and queer. In LIGO, Oli works on detector characterization, currently focusing on Gravity Spy. In their free time, Oli likes to garden and hang out with their pets.