Speaker(s): Szabolcs Marka adn Imre Bartos, Columbia University in the City of New York Advanced LIGO's completion and ongoing observation run might put the first direct detection of gravitational waves on the horizon, just in time for the 100th anniversary of Einstein's prediction. Beyond the eventual discovery, there is a growing focus on incorporating gravitational waves as a new window on questions from violent transients to cosmology. We will discuss some aspects of (i) the instrumental breakthroughs that enabled the unprecedented sensitivity reached by Advanced LIGO and (ii) the key scientific directions in which gravitational wave searches are being utilized, directly as well as in the context of multimessenger astronomy.