Break Through Prospers

“There’s something really freeing in being able to think broadly about what a course can and should be,” says environmental historian Keith Pluymers, Caltech’s inaugural Howard E. and Susanne C. Jessen Postdoctoral Instructor in the Humanities. His instructorship—endowed by Howard (BS ’46) and Susanne Jessen with matching funds from the Mellon Foundation, which previously supported the position annually—gives him greater freedom to invent new courses. “For me, the major appeal is being able to teach scientists and engineers the value of looking at the world through a historical lens,” Pluymers says. “My courses help students make broad connections, blurring the boundaries between human and environment.” So far, Pluymers has taught courses on rivers and human history, sustainability and conservation in the early modern world, and history and the Anthropocene.

"No single researcher or laboratory can master all of the diverse approaches necessary to solve the challenging problems of brain structure, function, and dysfunction," says David Anderson, Caltech’s Seymour Benzer Professor of Biology and holder of the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience Leadership Chair. "The Chen Institute at Caltech provides an unprecedented opportunity for Caltech faculty and students in different fields to join forces to take on these challenges.” In 2016, Caltech and the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute launched a major neuroscience initiative, spearheaded by a $115 million gift from philanthropists Tianqiao Chen and Chrissy Luo to establish a new institute and to provide continuous funds for neuroscience at Caltech. The Chen Institute will help Caltech leverage its strengths in computation, biology, and physics, says Anderson, “to forge new tools that will crack the most fundamental problems of brain function, such as perception, emotion, cognition, and communication, as well as to develop radical new therapies for currently intractable brain disorders."

“The financial assistance is really exceptional,” says undergraduate Sathwick Pathireddy (right), reflecting on the scholarships that helped him and his twin brother, Ruthwick (left), afford Caltech and have the freedom to play varsity tennis. Sathwick received a scholarship endowed by Fred Anson (BS ’54), Caltech’s Elizabeth W. Gilloon Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, and his wife, Roxana; Ruthwick received the Chloe Curtis Scholarship, endowed by John (BS ’62) and Anne Curtis. “Right now we can focus on what we want to do in college, without having to worry about the financial aspects. It might have been difficult to deal with education, sports, and trying to find financial support.” Ruthwick agrees. “I would like to thank the donors for their contributions to take some of the financial burden off us, and help us engage with the community,” he says.

“The home of mathematics at Caltech—the building where our graduate students and undergraduate majors take their classes and our scholars tackle problems that push the bounds of the human mind—will be transformed,” says Professor Elena Mantovan (pictured right), Caltech’s executive officer for mathematics. Major renovations of the Alfred P. Sloan Laboratory of Mathematics and Physics, to be renamed the Ronald and Maxine Linde Hall of Mathematics and Physics, will ensure and increase the vitality of Caltech mathematics, thanks to support from The Ronald and Maxine Linde Center for New Initiatives, which was created by Ronald (MS ’62, PhD ’64) and Maxine Linde. “So much great work has happened in this historic building,” Mantovan says. “Modernizing it is the first step in our vision for Caltech mathematics. We are eager to see how effective spaces for teaching, quiet focus, and interaction will benefit students and enhance our work, our connections with each other, and our collaborations with scientists and engineers across Caltech.”

“Professor Geoff Blake is the reason I came here,” says Camillus (Cam) Buzard, who fulfilled a dream in 2016 by joining Blake’s group as a graduate student. “I met one of his students at a conference in my sophomore year, and he introduced me to astrochemistry. It is a really young and exciting field.” Buzard values the support of a fellowship. “I have a stipend, and housing is subsidized. I get to put more of my brainpower into what I would like to be thinking about.” That support comes in part from the new Beckman-Gray Fellowships program, established with a gift from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation and augmented by the Gordon and Betty Moore Graduate Fellowship Match. “Right now, I’m analyzing spectra captured from very big, hot planets by the Keck telescopes,” Buzard says. “These planets are millions of times dimmer than their host stars. In the future, astronomers hope to study planets where life could exist, but these planets can be down by another factor of a thousand, or more, relative to their stars. I’m optimizing our methods so we can get spectra from these planets as well.”

“I am very excited about joining Caltech,” says Lihong Wang, who in 2017 became Caltech’s Bren Professor of Medical Engineering and Electrical Engineering and a member of the Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering at Caltech, endowed by the Cherngs in 2017. “This is the first medical engineering department in the country. I understand that some universities want to follow suit; it is such a great idea. I really look forward to doing my share to make a contribution. It’s an honor and a privilege for me to be here.” Wang has developed technologies that produce detailed images of tumors and other objects in the body. He believes his lab’s innovations will progress faster and in new directions at Caltech. “Here, we are able to work with first-rate faculty, postdocs, and students, and we have first-rate facilities,” Wang says. “My group has about 30 members, and Caltech’s so good, everybody wanted to move. That’s the attraction of Caltech. It’s not just me—everybody feels it.”

“I have always been passionate about planetary science and learning more about the cosmos,” future astronaut Jessica Watkins says. “I remember when the Spirit and Opportunity rovers were launched and made it to the surface of Mars and started roving around.” Today, as a member of the Mars Science Laboratory Science Team and a postdoctoral scholar in Caltech’s Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS), she is helping to plan the Curiosity rover’s activities and analyze its data to understand the geologic history of the Gale Crater on Mars. “As a postdoc, I am at a unique time in my career, where I am able to build from my graduate work and explore new areas before jumping into a faculty or permanent research role," she says. “The GPS Chair’s Postdoctoral Fellowship has enabled me to be a little bit more independent with my research,” Watkins adds, referring to a fellowship endowed by Foster and Coco Stanback. "And most important to me, that enables me to be a little bit more creative. It also enables me to work with a lot of the different professors in this division and to come at questions from different perspectives."

“A gift like the Kresa Leadership Chair enables us to get visionary projects off the ground,” says Fiona Harrison (pictured left), Caltech’s Benjamin M. Rosen Professor of Physics and holder of the Kent and Joyce Kresa Leadership Chair in the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, which Kent Kresa (pictured right) and the late Joyce Kresa endowed. “Recently, we have used discretionary funding from this chair to provide start-up packages for new faculty members,” Harrison says. “That allows them to focus on their best ideas instead of scrambling for grants to pay for lab equipment or support members of their new research groups. Thanks to that head start, these professors and their students already are immersed in exploration: They are advancing the search for life on other planets, building the basis for quantum technologies, and understanding how our universe evolved from a soup of hydrogen and helium to a place full of galaxies, stars, planets, and life.”