Barr Family Establishes Postdoctoral Fellowships

Melza and Frank Theodore (Ted) Barr (pictured with their son, Terence, right) have established postdoctoral fellowships for the next decade to accelerate research on the origins and evolution of Earth and other planets. Allowing freedom to pursue research in new and developing fields is one of the primary objectives of these fellowships.

Ted and Melza's son, Terence Barr (BS '84), began his journey to becoming a geophysicist at Caltech as an undergraduate where he had many opportunities to get involved in research. Later, as a postdoctoral scholar in Australia and France, Terence had the flexibility to embark on entirely new research directions. "I had the freedom to create my own path and not a path someone was telling me I needed to follow," says Terence, who served on Australia's Monash University faculty for nearly a decade. "Having this freedom as a postdoctoral scholar is critical. These young researchers are in an optimal time in their career where they can pursue novel ideas without obligations to teaching or administration."

To support today's postdoctoral scholars, Terence's parents, Melza and Frank Theodore (Ted) Barr, have established a suite of postdoctoral fellowships at Caltech through their family foundation. The couple's $3.25 million gift will award a three-year fellowship annually for the next decade to postdoctoral scholars affiliated with the Caltech Center for Comparative Planetary Evolution (3CPE). Established in 2019, the research hub brings together investigators from diverse fields, such as astronomy, geology, and biology, to understand how planets, moons, and other celestial bodies form and evolve. Understanding their evolution could help answer humanity's existential questions: Why are we here on Earth? Are we alone in the universe?

The postdoctoral fellowships build on the Barr family's previous commitment to 3CPE. In 2020, Melza, Ted, and Terence endowed the Terence D. Barr Leadership Chair for 3CPE. More than an honorific, the leadership chair provides flexible funds for the center director each year to meet pressing needs, respond to time-sensitive opportunities, and support the projects and facilities with the greatest potential impact. It also played an essential role in getting 3CPE off the ground and running.

Melza and Ted decided to give generously again after they visited the Caltech campus in April 2024. "After talking with faculty, we learned more about the role postdocs play in stimulating and pursuing new research ideas," Ted says. "We want to ensure that the top postdoctoral fellows from around the world have the opportunity to come to Caltech."

Invest Early in People and Opportunities

Melza and Ted met at UC Berkeley in the 1950s. She majored in Latin American studies while he pursued his interest in the earth sciences. They married in 1957 and spent the next 17 years living abroad. The couple first relocated to London while Ted completed his doctorate in geology at University College London. Then, as Ted embarked on his career in petroleum exploration, the couple moved to regions including North Africa, Indonesia, and South America. In 1989, Ted launched a petroleum company, AFEX International, which operates primarily in West Africa. Terence joined AFEX in 2000 and has served as the company's president for the past 25 years.

The Barrs' work in West Africa not only created a new chapter in their lives but also helped ignite their interest in giving back. Grateful for AFEX's success, the Barr family started charitable programs aimed at improving health and education in the West Africa countries where AFEX worked. As their donations expanded into the arts and medical research, the family discovered their interest in investing early in promising people and opportunities. For instance, Ted and Melza have also funded a new interdisciplinary effort to better understand and potentially cure glaucoma under the auspices of the Glaucoma Research Foundation.

Their gift to 3CPE aligns with their philanthropic mission to provide seed funding for new and developing innovative fields in research. "The Caltech Center for Comparative Planetary Evolution is at the forefront of a whole new realm of science," Terence says. "We are glad to help in any way to jumpstart this new initiative."

For Melza, her support of 3CPE holds additional significance. When she visited her son at Caltech in the 1980s, she hardly saw female students or faculty on campus. "Women often weren't called scientists, they were called female scientists, and it shouldn't be this way," Melza says. "Visiting the Caltech campus more recently in the last few years, I see so many more female students and faculty members, and, as a supporter of 3CPE, it's been a wonderful experience to see firsthand women contributing to science in significant ways."

On The Cusp of New Knowledge

As a member of the Chair's Council for the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, Terence regularly follows the research endeavors of postdoctoral scholars and graduate students. They are providing new insight into Europa's habitability, deciphering how microbes might behave in extreme environments on other planets, and rethinking the role water played in the formation of planets in our galaxy. "From day one, the new postdoctoral fellows have been working on cutting-edge research that I could not have imagined 30 years ago," Terence says. "It's exciting to see how they are already on the verge of huge breakthroughs."