Posts - Caltech Magazine

"Some of my earliest memories are sitting with my dad in the family room watching Star Trek during the original broadcasts on NBC. I was only 4 or 5, so I don't have much memory of it, but I grew up just knowing all the stories. Star Trek was literally my mythology as a child. For me, Star Trek is about exploration—going into places we've never been. The fact that it placed such a central focus o…

“I was just on my way to work one day when I saw an advertisement for an art studio that teaches adult art classes. They offered a free introductory class, so I went in, took the class, and got totally hooked. I started with basic drawing skills and then moved into painting. Oil painting, specifically, and I have stuck with it ever since. “Oil is a very forgiving medium. Any mistake you make, you…

Anima Anandkumar. Courtesy TIME Anima Anandkumar and Fei-Fei Li (PhD '05) are honored alongside AI power players from companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI. by Kimm Fesenmaier Anima Anandkumar , the Bren Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences; and Fei-Fei Li (PhD '05), a winner of the Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award in 2020, have been named to the 2026 TIME100 AI list , which ranks …

New Horizons image of Pluto. Credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute The Caltech professor’s discoveries helped give Pluto a demotion. Two decades later, he still says Pluto had it coming. by Andrew Moseman On August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union formally reclassified Pluto—our solar system’s then-ninth planet—as a dwarf p…

Harrison Schmitt (BS ’57) gave a lecture on lunar geology at Caltech on August 4, 2026. Credit: Caltech Astro One of the last humans to walk on the moon, and the only geologist to do so, delivers a talk on what moon dust can tell us. By Lori Dajose (BS '15) Scientist-astronaut Harrison Schmitt is photographed standing next to a large split lunar boulder during the third Apollo 17 Extravehicular A…

“I’ve always believed that music is a way to connect with people. It gives us a chance to come together, share ideas, and see things from different perspectives. That’s why I wanted to bring this event to Caltech—it’s about creating a space where science, creativity, and conversation can all happen together. “Supporting undergraduate students through a scholarship comes from that same place. It’s…

This series of profiles highlights scientists, engineers, and innovators who have made Caltech JPL a center for American excellence. by Lori Dajose (BS ’15) The red boulder-strewn field reaches to the horizon nearly 2 miles from Viking 2 on Mars’s Utopian Plain. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech Ashwin Vasavada (PhD ’98), the project scientist on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover mission, was 10 years old when…

Above: Riddhi Sadhanala, Caltech undergraduate student By Sabrina Pirzada For hundreds of students from Caltech and universities around the country, a summer internship at Jet Propulsion Laboratory offers more than a glimpse of science and engineering. It’s a chance to play an active role in discovery and exploration. This program has created a talent ecosystem whose influence reaches from the fr…

"When I was young, I really enjoyed the outdoors—hiking, rock climbing, spending time in Yosemite with my family. One thing I learned really quickly was the importance of ‘leave no trace’—essentially, leaving the place better than you found it. When I was young, I didn't really know what the word sustainability meant, but I was already learning about it through my experience in the outdoors. … “H…

More than 150 Caltech students, secondary school students and their family members, Rise supporters, and dignitaries gather in Dabney Garden at Caltech. Credit: Vicky Chiu While helping younger students fall in love with math and science, Caltech students strengthen their capacity to communicate, connect, and teach. By Ann Motrunich When Liz Jackman looks at new research about tutoring and mentor…

Kimberly A. See, Professor of Chemistry. Image: Lance Hayashida for Caltech by Sabrina Pirzada Lithium-ion batteries are embedded in modern life, powering our phones and laptops, EVs, power tools, vacuums, and lawnmowers. Our large-scale energy-storage systems rely on them too, as they support our electrical grid and the data centers that power AI . But a turning point is approaching: Lithium-ion…

Front: Hillary Mushkin, Henry Lane, Linet Kahuria, Ella Holland, Auriyon Khosravi. Back: Jacob Chambless, Ryan Fortin, and Nick Earhart, Weisman Postdoctoral Scholar Teaching Fellow in English and Visual Culture, who joined the trip as a chaperone. Credit: Hillary Mushkin. This spring, students in the Visual Culture and the California Environment course took a field trip to immerse themselves in …

Image: Peter Holderness for Caltech by Sabrina Pirzada For more than 100 years, Caltech’s Earnest C. Watson Lecture Series has brought the wonder and excitement of groundbreaking research to the public through free live events designed to spark conversation and connection. The 2025–26 season drew thousands of guests to Beckman Auditorium to hear directly from the scientists and engineers whose bo…

Tasmin Chu, a Caltech graduate student in mathematics and director of the Summer of Math, prepares a math puzzle for the high school student participants. Credit: Sharon W. Tran Caltech's inaugural session of the Summer of Math program encouraged curious minds from LA's high schools to find the joy in solving math problems. By Sharon W. Tran ‍ Pairs of students work at whiteboards covered in grid…

Families and astronomy buffs enjoyed interacting with scientists from a stunning array of astronomy and space organizations in and near Pasadena, including from Caltech’s campus, JPL, and IPAC. By Ann Motrunich The marshmallows roasted without a campfire. Instead, the children gathered outside the Pasadena Convention Center watched as a curved mirror, like the kind found in telescopes, concentrat…

“I’m originally from Puerto Rico, and I’m very used to a small tight-knit community back home. If you don’t know someone, you probably have someone that you know in common. That’s very similar to Caltech, which is so small you can build strong relationships—not just within your department, but everywhere . I had a chance to meet incredible people through the Caltech Basketball Club, the Graduate …

Left: Clair C. Patterson, whose quest to determine the age of the Earth exposed the global reach of industrial lead contamination. Image: Caltech Archives. Right: François Tissot, whose research traces lead released by the Eaton Fire to better understand its impacts on communities. Image: Lance Hayashida for Caltech. What do the age of the earth and the LA wildfires have in common? by Sabrina Pir…

Credit: Sharon W. Tran Go visit and support the Moshaal Open Library and Book Exchange in the Hameetman Center! Always an eclectic collection of books and a great way to broaden your reading (or share your own favorites with others). Lori Oliwenstein , director of institute communications and special projects La Crescenta, CA Left: Juan Renteria. Right: Telwar Mattox and Oliver Wilner. Credit: La…

by Andrew Moseman For years, Andy Klesh’s students have gone through a dress rehearsal for what it takes to design and then send a project to space. His  course, Practical Electronics for Space Applications, is taught every two years and has typically used balloons to loft student payloads up to nearly 100,000 feet to see how they perform in a near-space environment. This year, though, the balloo…

"I've been at Caltech for more than three decades, and what's kept me here through every role is the people; you walk across campus and you know almost everyone. Making connections is what led to my small part in setting up the Green Labs ReStore. In my experience, every time a professor retires, downsizes, or moves, a whole lab's worth of unused supplies and equipment could end up in the trash o…