The Caltech Archives, which serves as the Institute's collective memory, has long understood the importance of collecting documents and information that not only describe what happened and when, but add dimension and texture to crucial events.

Interviewing the people who lived through those events accomplishes that in a particularly powerful way. Started in 1978, the Archives' oral history program holds personal memoirs and in-depth interviews with distinguished members of the Caltech community. The most recent additions are interviews with Ahmed Zewail, the late Pauling Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics who died in August of 2016, and Harry Gray, the Beckman Professor of Chemistry.

The Zewail interview chronicles his childhood in Egypt, where his hunger for knowledge often led him into trouble. At one point, as a boy, Zewail—who had written "Dr. Ahmed" on his bedroom door—nearly set fire to his mother's rug with a chemistry experiment. In a later episode, young Dr. Ahmed took his uncle's car for a spin and drove it directly into the Nile River. "I knew theoretically what to do," he explains. "I put my left foot on the clutch, and I turn this on. To make a long story short, I tried to apply the theory to the experiment. Well, the car was headed down into the waterway!"

Zewail also describes how his political consciousness took root early on, noting that as a child he wrote a letter to the new Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Zewail recalls writing, "'You are one of us, and in Egypt that's very important, and we are so happy that you are leading the country.' Then I said, 'I pray that you will succeed in your position as the president of Egypt.' These are the three messages that I remember." Nasser sent a gracious response, wishing young Zewail success in the pursuit of knowledge. An image of Nasser's response can be found in the interview transcript.

The interview also covers Zewail's scientific career as well as his many accomplishments and awards. He says that all of his research was "for the love of what [he was] doing."

"This business of the Nobel Prize, it didn't come to my mind, nor did I know any details about it or what it meant," says Zewail. "For me it was the sheer love of whatever we can discover in a small way."

Harry Gray's interview spans his entire life to date—from his childhood in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he was the first boy in his class to ask out a girl, to his time at Caltech. He speaks fondly of his students and the pranks they pulled on him over the years.

One time before class, he recalls, his students unfastened all the desks in the lecture hall and reattached them to face the back of the room. Amused but undeterred, Gray simply carried a blackboard to the back of the lecture hall and taught from there.

"They put all this effort into unscrewing all those chairs and turning them around. Unbelievable. But it's because we had a great relationship," says Gray.

Later in the interview, Gray shares another favorite prank. "They broke into the conference room next door and turned it into a high-tech miniature golf course... They thought I'd be mad. I was happy. I played the golf course for three months. I didn't take it out of here." The full interview with Harry Gray can be accessed here.

To date, the oral histories program has published more than 160 interviews, many of which were recorded over multiple sessions. They can be found at the project's website at oralhistories.library.caltech.edu.

—Andrew Mishin

Demolition of the Winnett Student Center will begin on September 5, temporarily requiring the current fenced-in construction area to expand to the east. This means the area will abut Page House and restricting pedestrian access, says Greg Norden, Caltech Facilities' project manager for the Hameetman Center.

The expansion will prevent pedestrian access to the courtyard of Page, as well as access along that route from the Olive Walk to Chandler Dining Hall. A new walkway along this route will be constructed and is currently scheduled to open on September 20, Norden says. 

The Winnett demolition will continue through September and construction of the Hameetman Center—a 24,000-square-foot, two-story campus hub that is named in honor of Caltech trustee Fred Hameetman (BS '62) and his wife, Joyce, who provided the initial funding to initiate the design—will commence immediately thereafter. The center is scheduled to be completed in late 2018. 

In recognition of the role Winnett and its predecessors have played in campus life, Caltech magazine has created a retrospective of campus hubs throughout the Institute's history. You can also read about Caltech alumni memories of Winnett in the magazine's Endnotes column.

The 2011 Japanese earthquake was a defining moment for Mark Simons. The devastating 9.0-magnitude quake and its subsequent tsunami, which took nearly 16,000 lives, spurred efforts around the globe that will shape how nations predict and prepare for future natural disasters and motivated new approaches to basic earthquake science that are applicable to seismic events large and small.

Read more on the Break Through campaign website.

Wi-Fi access in more than a dozen buildings at Caltech has transitioned to two new networks—known as Caltech Secure and Caltech Visitor—with more buildings to come soon as part of a three-year upgrade of Wi-Fi across campus being rolled out by IMSS.

The project will triple the number of wireless access points and increase available bandwidth while phasing out the Caltech Beavernet network. The new system will replace equipment that is more than 10 years old with new technology that can better support the demands of wireless devices including smartphones, laptops, wireless printers, and AppleTVs, says Debra Anderson, IMSS wireless replacement project manager.

"We are excited to deliver more robust campus wireless networks to meet the needs of Caltech's faculty, students, and staff. The solution we are implementing will provide additional features and improve the overall user experience," says Dawn Boyd, director of networks and operations.

To date, Sherman Fairchild Library, Spalding Laboratory, and Gates-Thomas Laboratory, as well as most of undergraduate student housing, have transitioned to the new networks. Chandler Café is expected to switch over on October 6 and the remainder of the South Undergraduate Houses are expected to be completed by mid-October. Meanwhile, work has begun to upgrade the Arms and Watson buildings, which should be complete by the end of the month. Thereafter, academic buildings prioritized by the various divisions will follow. More information about Caltech Secure and the upgrade schedule can be found here.

To connect to the Secure network in areas where it is already active, select Secure and use your Access password. For more information, visit the Caltech Secure and Caltech Visitor information pages.

For help or more information about the project, contact the Help Desk at extension 3500, email help@caltech.edu, or visit Caltech Help at help.caltech.edu.  

Caltech magazine features a range of stories about the Institute, its people, and its impact on the world. In the current issue: learn how robotics at Caltech is taking off, with nature as its guide; why you should look up when you're walking around campus; and how the geobiology program is uncovering knowledge about the forces that created our world and continue to shape it.

Read the fall issue here.

On Tuesday, September 26, the Caltech community formally dedicated the Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering with a series of campus events. Thanks to a $30 million gift from the Cherngs, founders of Panda Express, this is the first endowed department at Caltech.

Read more on the Break Through campaign website.

The Office of the Provost is sponsoring this advance screening of Marshall. The film—produced by Caltech Trustee Donald Tang—follows a young Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, as he battles through one of his career-defining cases.

Tang will provide a brief intdroduction to the film and will also be available for a Q&A following the event.

Admission is free. No tickets are required.

The Caltech Recycling Center, currently located in parking lot 12 between S. Wilson and S. Michigan avenues, will permanently close on November 11 to accommodate the development of the north end of campus—including the construction of the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Neuroscience Research Building.

John Onderdonk, director of sustainability programs, says Caltech explored options to move the center to another area on campus, but space constraints and the evolving economics of the recycling industry made relocation unfeasible.

"While the recycling center served the local community at large, the recycling program on campus will continue as before in campus buildings with colored bins in common areas—blue for bottles and cans, brown for paper, and green for other recyclables—and in outdoor recycling bins found at various locations," he says. "Additionally, Caltech Sustainability is working with Faculty Housing and Student Services to expand the campus recycling program to all Caltech-owned off-campus housing."

For more information on the campus recycling program visit facilities.caltech.edu/links/recycling or, if you have questions, email sustainability@caltech.edu.

For more information on recycling in the City of Pasadena, visit the city's Department of Public Works website at www.cityofpasadena.net/publicworks.

All members of the Caltech community are invited to join in celebrating Caltech's most recent Nobel Laureates—Caltech's Barry Barish, the Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Physics, Emeritus and Kip S. Thorne (BS '62), the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus—who on October 3 were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics with a longtime colleague, MIT's Rainer Weiss.

The three were recognized for their key contributions to the development and ultimate success of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). Through five separate detections of gravitational waves, LIGO has ushered in a new era of gravitational-wave astronomy.

Attendees will have an opportunity to meet the Laureates and other members of the LIGO Laboratory and the LIGO Scientfic Collaboration who have contributed to LIGO's success, and learn about the science and engineering behind the project.

A collection of sweet and savory snacks will be served.

Tuesday, October 31, 2017
3:00 pm
Olive Walk
Meet the Laureates

With $200 and a box of clothes, Louise Kirkbride left home to attend Caltech in 1970—without her parents' permission or support.

That year, Caltech had announced that it would begin admitting female undergraduates. Kirkbride quickly applied and was accepted, but her parents did not want her to go.

"It was absolutely the hardest school to get into," she says. "For me, that was irresistible. It was the perfect school to go to for science and technology. And being in the first class presented an extra challenge. So I called Peter Miller in admissions and told him my situation. He said, 'If you can get here, we'll take care of you.' That commitment changed my life. The next morning I left Philadelphia."

This week, Kirkbride (BS '75, MS '76) and her husband, Richard Lipes (PhD '69), announced that their will now directs the bulk of their multimillion-dollar estate to scholarships for Caltech students, a top priority in Break Through: The Caltech Campaign.

Read more on the campaign website.

William (Bill) H. Ahmanson, president of The Ahmanson Foundation, has been elected to Caltech's Board of Trustees. The Los Angeles native studied political science, theater arts, and sculpture at Occidental College and, while still a student, began a career at Home Savings of America. He served there for 17 years, first as a teller and ultimately as chief underwriter for the bank's California residential lending division. He later worked in Union Bank's wealth management division before retiring from the industry to lead The Ahmanson Foundation. The philanthropic organization focuses on arts and humanities, education, health and medicine, and human services in Los Angeles County.

Ahmanson has received numerous awards and honors, including the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Cardinal's Award, the National Association of Veteran-Serving Organizations Joseph D. Helton Jr. Award for Leadership, and the Order of Saint Gregory the Great, a papal honor.

Ahmanson is one of three individuals to have joined the Board of Trustees, Caltech's governing body, in recent months. The Board is led by David L. Lee (PhD '74), chair, and Ronald K. Linde (MS '62, PhD '64), vice chair. It is currently composed of 45 trustees, 26 senior trustees, 19 life members, and one honorary life member.

Ahmanson recently reflected on his education and his interest in Caltech.

Tell us about a university professor who was particularly influential in your life.
Robert J. Janosik, an associate professor of politics at Occidental College, who died in 1992. He was my adviser and my constitutional law professor. He was engaging and thought provoking. The opinions of the students mattered, but so did the curriculum and the opinions of others.

What's the best advice you have ever received?
There is so much good advice that is incorporated into my being. The best advice in business is, perhaps, "Say no quickly." I have also found it is wise to pick your battles and to avoid making small issues bigger. Personally, I live by the only words of advice my father gave me: "Be fair."

How did you become interested in Caltech?
Hopefully the statute of limitations has run out! During water balloon raids while I was attending Occidental College, I was taken by the campus and have always been curious about the school. As I am getting older and more interested in learning, I find the discoveries made possible at Caltech fascinating. It seems that students and faculty have no idea what the following three words mean when uttered in this order: "Can't be done."

Alexander R. Mehran, chairman and chief executive officer of Sunset Development Company, has been elected to Caltech's Board of Trustees.

A California native who has lived in San Francisco since 1977, Mehran earned a law degree from Cambridge University after completing his undergraduate education at Harvard. Trained as an international lawyer, Mehran made his most significant professional impact in real estate, contributing to the economic development of the East Bay region.

Mehran spent three years managing real estate companies and assets at J.P. Morgan before joining Sunset Development Company, a private, diversified real estate organization his father founded in 1951. Over the next four decades, under Mehran's leadership, the company expanded beyond residential development, undertaking major commercial projects such as San Ramon's Bishop Ranch, a business park that houses 600 businesses that employ 30,000 workers. Earlier this year, shared autonomous vehicles began operating at Bishop Ranch as part of a state pilot program.

Mehran is one of three individuals to have joined the Board of Trustees, Caltech's governing body, in recent months. The Board is led by David L. Lee (PhD '74), chair, and Ronald K. Linde (MS '62, PhD '64), vice chair. It is currently composed of 45 trustees, 26 senior trustees, 19 life members, and one honorary life member.

Mehran recently shared some of the lessons that have shaped his long career in real estate.

What have you learned during your career that you think others should know?
The greatest lessons that I have learned during my business career are that quality matters, integrity is essential, and relationships are critical. My most notable achievement has been to transform our business into a multigenerational platform. The proudest moment in my career was introducing my son to our company in 2010, when we had three generations working in our office. The most fun that I have had in my career is building buildings and seeing the public enjoy the spaces that we have created.

Tell us about a university professor who was particularly influential in your life.
I have had a number of influential teachers in my life, but one in particular comes to mind: Professor Paul Freund, who was my senior thesis adviser at Harvard. We became friends, and he advised me to pursue a career in public international law at Cambridge University in England, which I did. It was a life-changing experience.

What's the best advice you have ever received?
The greatest advice that I have received is, "Live without fear, and know what you want." Life without risk is not fun and doesn't present challenges. If something doesn't have risk, it has probably been done before, which doesn't interest me.

What do you find most inspiring about Caltech?
I became interested in Caltech many years ago when my former father-in-law, Tom Watson, received an honorary degree, and I was present to experience the intensity of intellect that represents the Institute. The most inspiring aspect of Caltech is the intellectual rigor and depth of thought that occurs here. I wish people knew the practical applications of the research that comes out of Caltech.

Janet Campagna (MS '85), founder and CEO of QS Investors and a Caltech Distinguished Alumna, has been elected to the Institute's Board of Trustees. After earning a bachelor's degree in economics from Northeastern University, the Brookline, Massachusetts, native came to Caltech to pursue graduate studies in what was then an emergent social sciences department. She completed a master's degree, then earned a PhD in political science from UC Irvine, researching electoral bias and helping develop California's redistricting plans.

Soon after completing her academic studies, Campagna realized her skillset could be more aptly applied to finance, and she took her first job in the investment sector. She found she could apply her background as a social scientist to the emerging field of quantitative finance, which uses complex mathematical models to inform investment strategy. She rose through the ranks of firms including Barclays Global Investors in San Francisco and Deutsche Bank in New York, where she eventually became the global head of quantitative strategies.

Later, in the midst of the economic downturn, Campagna spun off her department into a new investment-management firm, QS Investors. She was named a Caltech Distinguished Alumna in 2016 for contributions to quantitative investment and leadership in the financial industry.

At Caltech, Campagna also serves on the Information Science and Technology council for the Division of Engineering and Applied Science. She is a member of advisory boards at UC Berkeley and Northeastern University, and is on the board of trustees at Mott Haven Academy in New York.

Campagna is one of three individuals to have joined the Board of Trustees, Caltech's governing body, in recent months. The Board is led by David L. Lee (PhD '74), chair, and Ronald K. Linde (MS '62, PhD '64), vice chair. It is currently composed of 45 trustees, 26 senior trustees, 19 life members, and one honorary life member.

Campagna recently reflected on her career and on lessons learned at Caltech.

Do you think it is important to take risks in life? Why?
Absolutely. The quantitative skills I obtained at Caltech opened up many opportunities I had never even realized existed. Almost every great opportunity and experience I have had in life has come when I push myself into the unknown.

What do you find most interesting or inspiring about Caltech?
The unabashed passion the community shows for its work and research interests. I wish more people were aware of the innovation that is generated by multidisciplinary collaboration at the Institute.

What qualities and experience do you bring to the role of trustee?
I bring strong fiduciary and risk-management discipline. I have knowledge of cybersecurity and a passion for shaping culture to fit an institution's goals.

Caltech's Board of Trustees, gathering this week for its annual retreat, has recently welcomed new members from the fields of philanthropy, finance, and real estate development.
 
William H. Ahmanson, President of the Ahmanson Foundation; Janet Campagna (MS '85), founder and CEO of QS Investors and a Caltech Distinguished Alumna; and Alexander R. Mehran, chairman and chief executive officer of Sunset Development Company were all elected to the board in recent months. In total, the board comprises 45 trustees, 26 senior trustees, 19 life members, and one honorary life member.
 
We recently asked each of Caltech's newest board members to reflect on their careers, education, and connection to the Institute. Read more about Ahmanson, Campagna, and Mehran.

As the Great American Eclipse on August 21, 2017, captured the imagination of Americans across the country, a group of 53 Caltech Associates President's Circle members, faculty, and staff experienced an exclusive adventure with Caltech professors Mike Brown and Paul Asimow.

In the summer of 2015, the Associates learned that Mike Brown, the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy, was planning a family vacation to Oregon to view the 2017 eclipse. No time was wasted in convincing him that he should bring along a few Associates members to share in this historic celestial event, one last seen across the United States 99 years ago.

Read more here.

The Graduate Student Council (GSC) will host an art gala on campus November 2, featuring dozens of photographs, paintings, digital art, and other works created by members of the Caltech community.

The GSC is holding the gala—part of a series of presentations on campus and around Pasadena—to promote the arts and showcase them as a way for Caltech to reach out to the larger community, says GSC Chair Alistair Hayden.

"While we explore the universe through our science, the arts give us a chance to explore what it means to be human in that universe—and to hone the creativity we use in everything else we do here," he says.

The gala follows recent presentations of Caltech artworks at city venues including the Armory Center for the Arts.

The event will be at Chandler Dining Hall on November 2, from 6–9 p.m.

The Caltech community gathered on October 31 to celebrate the Institute's most recent Nobel Laureates—Barry Barish, the Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Physics, Emeritus and Kip S. Thorne (BS '62), the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus—who on October 3 were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics with a longtime colleague, MIT's Rainer Weiss.

Hundreds of people attended the celebration on the Olive Walk, which featured remarks from the honorees, LIGO-themed ice sculptures, and commemorative Nobel-Prize chocolate coins emblazoned with the likeness of Barish and Thorne.

In commemoration of Veterans Day—which falls this year on Saturday, November 11—we asked service members from the Caltech community to share photos from their time in uniform. Here, we recognize and honor many of those who served—and some who continue to serve—in the armed forces.

Caltech geochemist John Eiler aims to reveal "the genetics of everything"—the history of each molecule in the natural world as written in its isotopic structure. What he finds out could have implications for ventures ranging from the study of meteorites to medical diagnosis and treatment.

Read more on the Break Through campaign website.

Jerome "Jerry" Pine, a Caltech professor of physics, emeritus, passed away on November 8, 2017. He was 89 years old. Pine served as a professor at Caltech for more than 50 years. In his early career, he undertook research in particle physics at several particle colliders, improving our understanding of the structure of elementary particles. Later, he transitioned into biophysics, developing new ways to study and visualize living neural cells. Pine was also passionate about science education. 

"Being an educator was extremely important to Jerry," says Nobel Laureate Barry Barish, the Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Physics, Emeritus, and Pine's collaborator during the 1960s on particle physics experiments. "He did education outreach before it was popular. To him, students learned science by doing it, and he would encourage them to do hands-on experiments in the lab."

Pine was born April 14, 1928, in New York City. He earned his bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1949 and his PhD from Cornell University in 1956. In 1963, he joined Caltech as an associate professor, becoming a full professor in 1967. He retired in 2014. 

In the 1960s, Pine did research at several particle colliders, including the Brookhaven National Laboratory, the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. While at Brookhaven, Pine worked on experiments in which anti-protons were scattered off other protons, annihilating each other and creating electron and positron pairs. (An anti-proton is the negatively charged version of a proton, which is positively charged, while a positron is the positive equivalent of a negatively charged electron.) This provided a different view of the proton, which helped lead to our current understanding of its structure.

At SLAC, Pine built a device that generated high-energy positrons for experiments comparing positrons to electrons to study the structure of the proton at high energies. The research was related to work subsequently done at the facility by Richard Taylor, Henry Kendall, and Jerome Friedman, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics 1990 for experimental evidence of the quark structure of the proton.

Beginning in the late 1970s, Pine shifted his research focus and transitioned into biophysics, using physics to develop new ways of studying and imaging live brain cells, or neurons. He is credited with inventing a microelectrode array that allows researchers to monitor the growth of neurons in a petri dish. 

Together with Caltech's Yu-Chong Tai, the Anna L. Rosen Professor of Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, Pine developed a neural chip to study the electrical communication between growing neurons. 

"Jerry was a tenacious scientist," says Tai, "He never quit anything he did in the lab—his mental strength was unbelievable. He was the driving force behind many of our projects."

Pine and his team also developed an X-ray microscope for observing living cells; fiber-optic photodiode arrays and high-speed CCD cameras for imaging neural activity; and silicon probes for long-term interfacing of neural tissues with external electronics.

"Jerry had a deciding influence on my career," says Markus Meister, the Anne P. and Benjamin F. Biaggini Professor of Biological Sciences at Caltech. "When I met him, Jerry had started to pursue neuroscience, first as a night job, then full time. I distinctly remember the first experiment we did together in the lab of Denis Baylor at Stanford. In the room were Jerry, Denis, myself, and a frog retina sitting in one of Jerry's exquisite multielectrode chambers. As we flashed the ceiling lights on and off, the retina's nerve cells were joyously sending spikes down the electrodes to Jerry's home-built multichannel amplifier. We had an immediate sense that something good just happened, but we did not anticipate that this kind of experiment would feed our scientific curiosity for a couple of decades to come. Jerry's original circuit board is now back at Caltech in my lab's small museum."

In addition to research, Pine was heavily involved with science education and outreach. He developed a freshman physics course at Caltech that emphasized hands-on experimentation. Students received build kits from the start and would do part of the experiments in their own rooms. Their final experiment involved building a microwave transmitter and receiver. 

"Jerry believed that part of an undergraduate education should be learning to build things," says Fiona Harrison, the Kent and Joyce Kresa Leadership Chair of Caltech's Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy. "I remember teaching the freshman course that Jerry developed. It was great: students put together circuits and experiments from simple materials—but not in a 'cookbook' way. They learned to troubleshoot and to debug, and at the same time these projects demonstrated fundamental physics principles."

In the 1980s, Pine co-founded the Caltech Precollege Science Initiative (CAPSI)—a K–12 program that collaborated with the Pasadena Unified School District to serve as a national model for systemic reform of science education. The program avoided old-fashioned techniques like rote memorization and lectures, and instead based its science learning on hands-on experimentation. The program also focused on educating teachers, again using the same hands-on approach rather than lectures.

Pine also championed the international development of inquiry-based science teaching, working with the late Nobel Laureate Georges Charpak, who, with other members of the French Academy of Sciences, launched their own version of this brand of teaching. The program was later adopted by many other countries. As Pine once said, "To change the system you have to affect all of it."

"I consider myself lucky to have known Jerry Pine, a very rigorous, dedicated, hard-nosed, and strong-spirited scientist," says Maria Spiropulu, the Shang-Yi Ch'en Professor of Physics at Caltech. "He was an admired researcher, a remarkable mentor, a revolutionary teacher, and a good friend to me ever since I arrived at Caltech. I will miss him and his wisdom, inquisitiveness, sharpness, and care."

Pine also served on many science education advisory boards and committees for various groups, including the National Center for Improving Science Education from 1988 to 1995, and the National Academy of Sciences' working group on science teaching standards from 1992 to 1995.