Two Years In, the Campaign Continues to Create New Possibilities
May 07, 2018
Since its public launch in April 2016, Break Through: The Caltech Campaign has broken Institute fundraising records. While Break Through looks to secure Caltech's future as a source of discovery for the world, the campaign already is making an imprint on campus and beyond by supporting Caltech people who are pursuing big questions and bold ideas.
Caltech leaders identified endowed funding for graduate fellowships, undergraduate scholarships, and discretionary resources as among the top campaign priorities—and generous supporters have enthusiastically answered the call. The Institute is grateful to the more than 11,000 donors who have given to Caltech through the Break Through campaign already, contributing $1.62 billion toward our $2 billion goal.
The following slideshow presents a handful of examples of how campaign donors are helping to expand the reach of Caltech scientists and engineers.
Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Neuroscience Research Building
In December 2017, the Break Through campaign broke new ground—literally. The campus celebrated the start of construction for a facility that will be at the heart of inquiry into the mysteries of the brain led by faculty in the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering.
The state-of-the-art Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Neuroscience Research Building, expected to open in 2020, is one outgrowth of a $115 million gift from Tianqiao Chen and Chrissy Luo.
The couple’s gift also provided funding for a new institute launched by Caltech and the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute in 2016. The Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech brings together five interdisciplinary research centers spanning a continuum from studying the basic biology of brain function to investigating human behavior.
“We really respect Caltech’s contribution in pushing the boundaries of human knowledge—from outer space to the atom,” Tianqiao Chen says. “Caltech can contribute the same greatness to understanding the human brain.”
For Leah Klement, an appointment as Caltech’s Anne Rothenberg Postdoctoral Instructor in the Humanities proved to be a twofer.
On campus, she joined an extraordinary scholarly community in the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences. As a bonus, she has access to an unparalleled collection of primary sources at the nearby Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, a partner with the Institute through the Caltech-Huntington Humanities Collaborations.
“To have a world-leading research library with collections in medieval British literature down the street is pretty amazing,” Klement says.
Klement explores literature and historical chronicles to understand how people encounter and address social differences, particularly in times of civil war. The relevance of this research grows in a time when deep political divisions in the United States and overseas regularly sow chaos.
The instructorship that supports Klement’s work was created through a Break Through campaign gift from Anne Rothenberg and her late husband, Caltech trustee James Rothenberg.
Says Klement: “These endowed postdoctoral positions are critical not only in supporting up-and-coming scholars, but also in confirming Caltech’s interest in both teaching the humanities and developing innovation in the humanities.”
Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies
They will walk the earth, skim the seas, and fly through space.
Drones and other autonomous systems under development at Caltech gained a new training ground with the opening of the Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST) in October 2017.
Within this 10,000-square-foot space, Caltech engineers and scientists from many disciplines are collaborating across the continuum from basic to applied research to develop the autonomous robotic systems of the future. The enterprise unites researchers from the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, and JPL.
“The goal is to teach autonomous systems to think independently and react accordingly, preparing them for the rigors of the world outside of the lab,” says CAST director Mory Gharib, Caltech’s Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Bioinspired Engineering.
CAST was established with a $20 million commitment to the Break Through campaign from philanthropists Foster and Coco Stanback. The new facility has been described as a “living experiment”—complete with areas for testing walking robots as well as flying drones and spacecraft, and housing a team of learning robots that help to run the center.