New Ginsburg Prize Invests in Daring Ideas
A $1.5 million gift from Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg provides essential funds for faculty at a pivotal moment in their research.
Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg, longtime benefactors of higher education, conservation, and science and medicine, are empowering young scientists to leverage today's rapidly developing technology to pursue bold ideas at Caltech. The $1.5 million gift establishing the Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Prize supports mid-career faculty who have demonstrated extraordinary productivity, ingenuity, and creativity in their research.
Professors Konstantin Batygin (MS '10, PhD '12) and Katherine (Katie) Bouman are the first recipients of the Ginsburg Prize, chosen for their distinctive research projects that have revealed secrets of the universe and shifted the fields of science. Their selection was the outcome of a robust process based on nominations by their division chairs and in consultation with Institute leadership.
"Caltech fearlessly pursues new ideas that have the potential to transform our understanding of the world," says President Thomas F. Rosenbaum, the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor of physics. "Allen and Charlotte recognize the vital role our faculty, students, and postdocs play in leading the discovery process, and we are grateful for their foresight and generosity in establishing this consequential prize. Congratulations to Konstantin and Katie for being selected as the inaugural recipients of this honor."
Doubling Down on Impact
In 2020, the Ginsburgs made their first gift to Caltech. The Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Center for Quantum Precision Measurement brings researchers from different disciplines together to explore new frontiers in quantum sensing, gravitational-wave detection, and quantum information science. The building, designed with some of the most advanced laboratories on campus, is scheduled to open in June.
"Allen and I have seen what happens when the spirit of curiosity is awakened," Charlotte says. "People are encouraged to learn more, act on their ideas, and become better stewards of the planet. Still so early in their careers, Katie and Konstantin have inspired colleagues and future scientists with their work. We look forward to what other awe-inspiring discoveries they find."
The Ginsburg Prize is the couple's second commitment to Caltech and is inspired in part by their interaction with faculty. Learning firsthand about innovations in quantum computing, AI, and sustainability science motivated the Ginsburgs to help fast-track researchers' progress.
"Caltech is home to some of the most beautiful minds in the world," Allen says. "Lady Charlotte and I want to push science and society forward, and this is the ideal place to do it."
Expanding Our Understanding of the Solar System
In 2016, Batygin, professor of planetary science, and Mike Brown, the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy, found evidence of a ninth planet orbiting the sun from the distant reaches of the solar system. A decade later, the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory provides Batygin the technology to transform the scientific evidence of Planet Nine's existence into a physical discovery. The observatory, sitting atop the Andes mountain range in Chile, has the largest high-definition digital camera in the world and will scan the sky to produce a robust catalog of Milky Way objects. This latest tool puts the hunt for Planet Nine into a new, promising phase.
Batygin's journey of discovery has not been without challenges. He recalls his early days as a Caltech assistant professor, when government funders initially rejected his proposals, and how the Institute's support gave him the freedom to pursue any idea of his choosing. "Early in a career, you inevitably follow an intuition before the roadmap is fully clear," Batygin says. "But once a group is funded and productive, there is always an inclination to stay inside the lanes that already work."
Now his focus has expanded to the evolution of Jupiter and its satellites, propelling him toward a unified theory of planet formation. Last year, with collaborator Fred C. Adams, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Michigan, Batygin provided a clearer picture of Jupiter's early history. The pair and their research teams found that the planet was twice its current size and had a magnetic field 50 times stronger. Instead of relying solely on traditional models to glean new information, Batygin was inspired by geologists who look to terrestrial rocks to find clues about Earth's beginnings and evolution. In the same fashion, Batygin studied Amalthea and Thebe, two moons close to Jupiter that have slightly tilted orbits, to decipher the planet's original size.
"In a sense, Jupiter's early thermodynamic state and magnetic field are written into the record of satellites," Batygin says. Jupiter, with its 95 moons, resembles extrasolar planet systems, according to Batygin. Each new revelation informs how scientists understand the formation of giant planets circling other stars. Batygin continues to expand, refine, and validate his theories using data from the Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft.
With two lines of inquiry entering promising stages, financial support from the Ginsburg Prize allows Batygin to quickly pivot his research based on findings or go in a completely new direction. "The Ginsburgs have given me the opportunity to think more exploratorily again," he adds. "My group can move into new territory with the freedom to follow ideas as they develop. This prize is an inspiration and mandate to, once again, take serious scientific risks."
Forging a Unified Framework for Computational Imaging
Bouman, professor of computing and mathematical sciences, electrical engineering and astronomy, generated the first image of a black hole with her colleagues at the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration in 2019. Three years later, she helped lead a multinational team in generating the first image of another black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
Today Bouman is drawing on her experience reconstructing images from incomplete or indirect data to pursue a more unified path for computational imaging. Her work integrates physics-based modeling with flexible and plug-and-play artificial intelligence (AI). The potential outcome is a shared language that enables researchers across fields to extract more information from limited data, without having to develop a specialized method each time.
"The goal is to establish a common framework that allows researchers across disciplines, from geophysics to medicine to astrophysics, to systematically incorporate prior knowledge and quantify uncertainty without sacrificing connection to the physics," says Bouman, who is also a Rosenberg Scholar and a Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator.
Her vision is starting to take shape. In recent work, Bouman and collaborators evaluated methods in seismology, astronomy, medical imaging, and fluid dynamics, revealing some surprising commonalities as well as failure points. These insights are helping guide the design of more generalizable approaches and enable advances in computational imaging that would be difficult to achieve within any single field alone.
The Ginsburg Prize is supporting her efforts to build the infrastructure, computing capabilities, and team needed to advance this work. The prize's flexibility allows her group to pursue emerging ideas and cross-disciplinary directions that are often difficult to fund through traditional channels.
"Some of the most important advances come from following questions that don't yet fit neatly into existing funding structures," Bouman says. "The wonderful flexibility of the Ginsburg Prize is that it gives us the freedom to pursue more ambitious directions that we believe will have lasting impact, not just in computational imaging but across all of science." To that end, Bouman was recently part of a team that introduced a new tool that expands opportunities for non-invasive at-home health monitoring. By observing invisible surface waves on the skin with a smartphone, users may monitor the stiffness and thickness of human tissue. Over time, changes in tissue could signal tumor growth, musculoskeletal degeneration, or liver disease.
Leveraging Pivotal Moments
The Ginsburg Prize will be awarded to two Caltech faculty every year through 2028. Recipients can use the prize funds for their research, whether by supporting undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers, acquiring tools and supplies, or investing in any other aspect of their research they consider essential to discovery.
"The Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Prize highlights the profound importance of investing in faculty during pivotal stages in their careers," says Provost David Tirrell, the Ross McCollum-William H. Corcoran Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering who is also the holder of the Carl and Shirley Larson Provostial Chair. "Well-timed funding can enable breakthroughs that propel our society forward. We are grateful to partner with Allen and Charlotte in supporting talented faculty like Konstantin and Katie."