Today we celebrate Ditch Day, one of Caltech's oldest traditions. During this annual spring rite—the timing of which is kept secret until the last minute—seniors ditch their classes and vanish from campus. Before they go, however, they leave behind complex, carefully planned out puzzles and challenges—known as "stacks"—designed to occupy the underclassmen and prevent them from wreaking havoc on the seniors' unoccupied rooms.

Follow the action on Caltech's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages as the undergraduates tackle the puzzles left for them to solve around campus. Join the conversation by sharing your favorite Ditch Day memories and using #CaltechDitchDay in your tweets and postings.

For one week at the end of March, 32 students from 20 universities and 14 countries came to Caltech for an intensive training experience in space mission design: the Caltech Space Challenge. Organizers hand-selected the undergraduate and graduate students from a pool of 220 applicants and created two "dream teams" of engineers, scientists, and designers to face off in a competition to see who could design the best mission.

This year, the teams—Team Explorer and Team Voyager—were tasked with designing a manned mission to an asteroid placed in orbit around the moon. Aside from determining details such as the best type of vehicle to use, the optimal launch date, and how to keep the astronauts safe, each team was asked to explain how its mission would explore and make use of the asteroid to enable future missions to more distant locales, such as Mars.

The Space Challenge takes place at Caltech every two years. For the inaugural challenge in 2011, participants designed a manned mission to a near-Earth asteroid. Two years later, the challenge involved planning a mission to one of Mars's moons.

This year, organizers based the challenge on NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), proposed for launch in 2020. The concept of that mission is to send a robotic spacecraft to a near-Earth asteroid, have it remove a large boulder from the asteroid's surface, and then move it into a lunar orbit. A version of a mission originally considered by the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) at Caltech, NASA's ARM is part of a larger strategy to use asteroids as a stepping-stone to manned missions to Mars and beyond.

"KISS came up with this idea to redirect an asteroid and bring it here as a way to fulfill President Obama's vision of people going to an asteroid by 2025," explains Hayden Burgoyne, a graduate student in space engineering at Caltech and one of two student lead organizers for this year's challenge. "Basically, they said, 'It's hard to send people to an asteroid; it's easier to bring an asteroid to us.' But people are looking toward the end goal of Mars, and they want to know how the Asteroid Redirect Mission will help us get there. So we framed this challenge as a resource utilization challenge to show how this resource that they bring back—this asteroid—can be used to benefit future human exploration."

Throughout the week, the students attended lectures delivered by scientists and engineers from JPL and the aerospace industry on topics related to the challenge, such as mission formulation, human space exploration, asteroid mining, and chemical propulsion. They were also able to consult with mentors working in related fields who were available to help the teams troubleshoot.

"Basically, we brought together the best of the best," says Niccolo Cymbalist, a graduate student in aeronautics at Caltech and the event's other student lead organizer. "But one of the neat things is that the students had the opportunity to interact with sort of their future selves. The speakers and mentors who came in from JPL and from industry are also at the top of their fields, and many participants from previous years have gone on to work in space-related fields."

This year, the teams also had the opportunity to complete a half-day formalized study with a group in the Innovation Foundry at JPL, known as the A-Team. These JPL scientists and engineers help explore, develop, and evaluate early mission concepts and were able to advise the students on science, implementation, and programmatic elements of their respective missions.

At the end of the week, both teams turned in written reports and presented their mission concepts to an audience that included jurors from Caltech, JPL, the Planetary Society, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, SpaceX, and Millennium Space Systems.

In their mission plans, both groups opted to use two rockets—one to launch scientific cargo and another at a later date to deliver the crew. They also both decided that three astronauts would be optimal for this mission.

Beyond those similarities, though, the two teams had quite different approaches to the challenge. Team Explorer had the idea to use an autonomous swarm of robots to characterize the topology of the asteroid and to collect samples both at the surface and at depth, using a specially designed chamber to extract volatiles. They planned to purify water found on the asteroid, demonstrating that it could be used in a variety of ways, including to water a lettuce garden—something that might capture the attention of the general public. The mission would also determine whether the asteroid could be used as a resource depot for other missions, or as part of the Deep Space Network to help facilitate communication between Earth and operating spacecraft.

In contrast, Team Voyager planned to join their mission's cargo and crew vehicles with an inflatable habitat brought along as cargo once their astronauts reached the asteroid. The astronauts would then spend five days using a robotic arm to drill and to conduct seismic surveys as they determined whether it was safe to explore the asteroid further. They also would bring a suite of scientific instruments with them, including a device to extract oxygen, hydrogen, and methanol from the asteroid, and they would collect and return samples to Earth from the asteroid's subsurface core. Team Voyager's plan for engaging the public included social media and a live feed from a 3-D HD 360-degree camera mounted on an astronaut's helmet.

The organizers say both teams presented outstanding missions. "I was blown away by the quality of the work that the students produced," says Burgoyne.

The final results were presented at a closing reception and banquet at the Athenaeum on March 27. In the end, Team Voyager came out slightly ahead of Team Explorer. According to the jury, the deciding factor was Team Voyager's presentation and success in turning their technically detailed report into a compelling story for the audience.

Alicia Lanz, a member of Team Voyager and a graduate student in physics at Caltech, says the best part of the experience was meeting and working with people from various parts of the world and with different scientific training. "It was so interesting to learn from people with different backgrounds and to see everyone work together to create a viable mission that was greater than anything a single individual could have contributed," she says. "The Caltech Space Challenge was an amazing opportunity."

The student technical lead for this year's Space Challenge was Jay Qi, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at Caltech. The faculty advisor was Beverley McKeon, professor of aeronautics at Caltech and associate director of the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT). Leon Alkalai of JPL was the program mentor. The Space Challenge is organized by GALCIT and supported by Caltech and its Division of Engineering and Applied Science, JPL, KISS, and corporate sponsors including Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, Millennium Space Systems, and AGI.

Caltech seniors Jonathan Liu, Charles Tschirhart, and Caroline Werlang will be engaging in research abroad as Fulbright Scholars this fall. Sponsored by the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Fulbright Program was established in 1946 to honor the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas for his contributions to fostering international understanding.

Jonathan Liu is an applied physics major from Pleasanton, California, who will be doing research at Ludwig Maximilian University Munich in Germany. He plans to work with a biophysicist studying how DNA moves in a liquid with a thermal gradient, which could shed light on the molecular origins of life. Long strands of DNA should break apart well before they have time to organize themselves into the complicated arrangements needed to be self-reproducing, but previous work in the lab Liu is joining has hinted that deep-sea hydrothermal vents may have allowed long strands to form stable clusters. Liu plans to enroll at UC Berkeley for graduate study in physics at the PhD level on his return; he was awarded one of UC Berkley's Graduate Student Instructorships to support his work.

Charles Tschirhart of Naperville, Illinois, is a double major in applied physics and chemistry. He will be studying condensed matter physics at the University of Nottingham, England, where he plans to develop new ways to "photograph" nanometer-sized (billionth-of-a-meter-sized) objects using atomic force microscopy. He will then proceed to UC Santa Barbara to earn a PhD in experimental condensed matter physics. Charles has won both a Hertz fellowship and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship; both will support his PhD work at UC Santa Barbara.

Caroline Werlang, a chemical engineering student from Houston, Texas, will go to the Institute of Bioengineering at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland to work on kinases, which are proteins that act as molecular "on/off" switches. She will join a lab that is trying to determine how kinases select and bind to their targets in order to initiate or block other biological processes—an important step toward designing a synthetic kinase that could activate a tumor-suppressor protein, for example. After her Fulbright, she will pursue a doctorate in biological engineering at MIT. Caroline's PhD studies will be supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship.

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government. Seniors and graduate students who compete in the U.S. Fulbright Student Program can apply to one of the more than 160 countries whose universities are willing to host Fulbright Scholars. For the academic program, which sponsors one academic year of study or research abroad after the bachelor's degree, each applicant must submit a plan of research or study, a personal essay, three academic references, and a transcript that demonstrates a record of outstanding academic work.

It is no secret that Caltech's graduate students have unparalleled research opportunities. Working closely with faculty advisers and colleagues in diverse fields across campus, their contributions are essential to the Institute's advances in science, engineering, and technology. For nearly two decades, the Everhart Lecture Series has provided a venue to highlight graduate student research at Caltech.

The annual series, named after Caltech president emeritus Tom Everhart, provides three carefully selected graduate students with an opportunity to present their work to an Institute-wide audience. The series was established with the goal of "encouraging interdisciplinary interaction and helping faculty and graduate students across campus to share ideas about recent research developments, problems and controversies, and to recognize the exemplary presentation and research abilities of Caltech's graduate students."

"Having the ability to demonstrate your work to the broader community—those outside of your own scientific area—is extremely important, and too often graduate students have very little experience with this," says graduate student Constantine Sideris, the 2014–15 chair of the Everhart Lecture Series committee, an interdisciplinary committee of graduate students that selects the three graduate student lecturers from a pool of more than a dozen applicants each fall.

"This series allows them to hone their presentation and dynamic speaking skills, and also their ability to explain difficult, technical concepts to a diverse audience," Sideris says.

This year's lecturers—Carissa Eisler (chemistry and chemical engineering), Roarke Horstmeyer (electrical engineering), and Peter Rapp (chemistry and chemical engineering)—gave talks on campus earlier this spring, and all three were invited to share their work with members of the Caltech community during the Institute's annual Seminar Day event in May. This year's lectures span a range of topics, from enhancing solar-cell efficiency, to improving microscope imaging, to understanding polymers. (Complete lecture descriptions from the students as well as links to podcasts of the recorded talks on iTunes U can be found below.)

"Research is only getting more interdisciplinary, so effectively communicating your work is an essential skill," says Eisler. "The lecture was really challenging, and I was very nervous, but it was incredibly rewarding, and I'm so glad that I did it."

Eisler and her colleagues noted that participating in the lectures provided valuable learning opportunities—by forcing them to synthesize and explain their work to individuals outside of their respective fields—and helped to build campus awareness for the breadth of research that's being done by graduate students.

"I work with a team of remarkable people, and I hope the lecture communicated that my project is just one among many exciting projects in our lab," Rapp says.  

Lecture Descriptions:

Building a Brighter Future: Spectrum-Splitting as a Pathway for 50% Efficiency Solar Cells
By Carissa Eisler
Lab: Harry Atwater, Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science and director of the Resnick Sustainability Institute

Although possible, ultra-high solar-cell efficiencies (>50 percent) have not been achieved because of limitations by current fabrication methods. Spectrum-splitting modules, or architectures that employ optical elements to divide the incident spectrum into different color bands, are promising because they can convert each photon more efficiently than traditional methods. This talk discusses our design and prototyping efforts to create such a spectrum-splitting module. We explore the spectrum-splitting optics and geometric optimizations in the context of high-efficiency designs. We show a design that achieves 50 percent efficiency with realistic device losses and geometric constraints. 

Listen to the lecture on iTunesU: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/building-brighter-future-spectrum/id986954281?i=341029550&mt=2

Computational Microscopy: Turning Megapixels into Gigapixels
By Roarke Horstmeyer
Lab: Changhuei Yang, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Medical Engineering

Optical aberrations limit the size of current microscope images to tens of megapixels. This talk will present a method to boost a microscope's resolving power to one gigapixel using a technique termed Fourier ptychography. No moving parts or precision controls are needed for this resolution enhancement. The only required hardware is a standard microscope, which we outfit with a digital detector and an array of LEDs. An optimization algorithm does the rest of the work. Example applications of our new microscope include full-slide digital pathology imaging, wide-scale surface profile mapping of human blood, and achieving sub-wavelength resolution without needing oil immersion.

Listen to the lecture on iTunesU: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/computational-microscopy-turning/id986954281?i=341030229&mt=2

Shaking Hands in a Crowded Room: How Sticky Polymers Travel through Viscoelastic Gels
By Peter Rapp
Lab: David Tirrell, Ross McCollum-William H. Corcoran Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering; Director, Beckman Institute

What if you could give a polymer hands and feet and watch it move? We have developed biological approaches to synthesizing functional materials made from proteins, nature's flagship polymers. These approaches provide a set of tools for answering fundamental questions in polymer physics and for synthesizing dynamic materials that find applications in soft-tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. This talk will explore the dynamics of a model "sticky" polymer: an artificial protein engineered with associative endblocks that self-assembles into viscoelastic hydrogels. Fluorescence relaxation studies have demonstrated that polymer diffusion in these gels is controlled by endblock exchange, a process akin to a molecular handshake. Genetic approaches to modifying the endblock architecture enable tuning of polymer mobility over a wide range.

Listen to the lecture on iTunesU: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/shaking-hands-in-crowded-room/id986954281?i=343195468&mt=2

On June 4, the 60th Annual Caltech Staff Service Awards will celebrate 247 staff members for their "on-the-job excellence and commitment to Caltech." The awards are presented in recognition of length of service, starting at the 10-year mark. The employees recognized this year have reached milestones of service ranging from 10 to 45 years. They have collectively served Caltech and its community for a total of 4,490 years.

"The Staff Service Awards is a special time when Caltech staff members are recognized and thanked for their passion for and dedication to the Institute," says Julia McCallin, associate vice president for human resources. "We honor them and their families in this annual ceremony for helping make Caltech the world's premier research and educational institution."

Hear what it's like to work at Caltech from some of this year's honored employees.

In addition, one staff member will receive the annual Thomas W. Schmitt Annual Staff Prize, presented to an individual "whose contributions embody the values and spirit that enables the Institute to achieve excellence in research and education." The prize is selected from community nominations by a committee of faculty and staff members.

The awards will be given at a ceremony in Beckman Auditorium beginning at 10 a.m., with a reception in Dabney Lounge and Garden to follow.

The 60th Annual Staff Service Awards will be presented in Beckman Auditorium on Thursday, June 4, at 10 a.m. During the ceremony, nearly 250 staff members whose service ranges from 10 to 45 years will be honored for their commitment to Caltech. A full list of awardees is online.

Among the honorees is Robert A. Taylor, who has worked at the Institute for the last 45 years, most recently in the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA) for the Laser Interferometry Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project. We spoke with Taylor about his four-and-a-half decades at Caltech.

Can you tell us how you originally came to Caltech and a little about your career?

In 1969, I was attending Pasadena City College, majoring in electronics analysis. I came to class one evening and my instructor, who was the chief engineer for the Seismology Laboratory at Caltech, asked if I would like to work for Caltech. I said yes. The job was in the Division of Geology and Planetary Sciences with Dr. Anderson [Don L. Anderson, the late Eleanor and John R. McMillan Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus, and former director of the Seismology Lab] to help build the seismometer that was to go to the moon.

In GPS, I enjoyed working with the students on their thesis projects and on other projects that have come along over the years. Some of those projects have taken me to places that most people never get to go. I observed an atomic bomb detonation in Nevada, serviced a seismic station at the base of the Andes Mountains in Peru, and dove on coral reefs off Sumatra, Indonesia. In the deserts of California, Arizona, and New Mexico, I did experiments with the first rocks brought back from the moon. That is just the first half of my time here at Caltech.

The second half is still ongoing. In 2001, I transferred to PMA, to continue my journey with LIGO, running the ultrahigh-vacuum bake lab. The purpose is to clean the parts that go into the vacuum envelope of the interferometer. LIGO is by far the most interesting project I have worked on since I have been here at Caltech.

What were your first impressions of Caltech?

Quite frankly, I was a bit intimidated at first. I had never worked in an academic atmosphere before with the kind of prestigious people that I come in contact with on a daily basis. For example, the first office that I had was across the hall from Dr. Charles F. Richter [developer of the Gutenberg-Richter law for measuring the size of an earthquake]. Could that be more awesome? But I soon realized that the people around me were accepting me as part of the team at Caltech.

What has been the most exciting moment for you so far at Caltech?

There are two moments that stick in my mind. The first is the research that we did in Indonesia with Dr. Sieh [Kerry Sieh, formerly Caltech's Robert P. Sharp Professor of Geology], taking coral samples from reefs in the Batu Islands off Sumatra. The other was the first time I visited the LIGO Livingston Observatory and saw firsthand a full-size interferometer.

What has changed the most for you here over the last 45 years?

I think what has changed most is my idea of what is possible. At Caltech, the possibilities are limitless.

How much longer do you think you will stay?

Let's just put it this way: I love what I do. I feel like the luckiest person alive to have been invited to participate and be a part of Caltech.

Ruben Carmona, a grill station cook in Caltech's Chandler Cafeteria, is the winner of the 2015 Schmitt Prize. The prize is awarded annually to Caltech staff members who embody the values and spirit of the Institute through their work, directly or indirectly supporting its research and teaching mission through the professionalism and commitment they bring to their jobs.

Carmona has been a Caltech employee since 2001, working in culinary services both on campus and at JPL. He began his career at Chandler Cafeteria, moving to JPL's Café 167 in 2002, where he worked for four years before returning to campus in 2006.

"I have been here almost 15 years, and I love it," Carmona said. "Working at Caltech, I feel like I am part of a family. When I see that smile from my customers—students, faculty, staff—it's a reward for me."

Carmona was nominated by an anonymous member of the Caltech community who testified to his dedication to his work as well as his grace under pressure, writing, "I challenge anyone to name another person on campus who, day in and day out, approaches his or her job with more enthusiasm, pride, and attention to detail than Ruben. No matter how colossal the crowd of hungry students, faculty members, and staff clustered around his station is, Ruben prepares each and every delicious meal with unmatched speed and professional skill."

The nominator also cited Carmona's unwavering good humor, attesting that "he is never anything but calm and courteous, no matter how chaotic it gets (and we all know how hectic the noon hour in Chandler can be). Even on the craziest days, Ruben will cheerfully go out of his way to accommodate a special request."

The prize was presented to Carmona on June 4 during the 60th annual Staff Service Awards, which honored staff members who have worked at Caltech for periods ranging from 10 to 45 years.

Carmona recalls his reaction to hearing his name called as the winner. "It was shocking," he says. "I'm still surprised; I can't believe it. I got a letter last week, and I knew I was nominated, and just knowing that was exciting for me. …This is incredible. Thank you. Thank you, everybody."

Senior director of dining services Jonathan Webster, who is Carmona's supervisor, noted that the dining services team was very excited about Carmona's honor.

"We are very grateful to have an employee as dedicated as Ruben on our staff," says Webster. "He has been a fixture at the Chandler grill station for over 15 years. One thing to note about the grill station is the constant heat: constant orders coming in, hot equipment all around, and hungry people waiting for their food. Ruben still has time to greet everyone cordially, chat with his regulars, and know his customers''regular' orders."

The Schmitt Prize was established in 2007 through the initiative of Thomas W. Schmitt, former associate vice president for human resources. Schmitt proposed the idea of a staff prize to senior administrators, and it was eventually funded by Ted Jenkins, Caltech alumnus (BS '65, MS '66) and trustee, who spent his professional career in the semiconductor industry. All staff members are eligible for this award and are nominated by members of the Caltech community.

Each year as Commencement day approaches, Caltech's senior class traditionally makes a single combined gift to the Institute. But the class of 2015 has given that plan an unusual twist. In lieu of one joint contribution, each senior has been asked to "give back to the area of campus that has meant the most to you—whether it's your house, scholarships, athletics, student life," or any other facet of the undergraduate experience.

The idea is being championed by senior class copresidents Aditya Bhattaru and David Flicker, along with the senior representatives of all eight student houses. And to sweeten the deal, faculty alumni Tom Soifer (BS '68) and Kip Thorne (BS '62) have agreed to match each donation, dollar for dollar, up to a maximum of $20.15 per senior (commemorating the year) and $4,000 overall.

Individually earmarking multiple contributions makes for a less traditional legacy than something monolithic, like a bench or a scholarship or an avocado grove, but it is no less welcome. "Senior class gifts aren't about things," says Perry Radford, Caltech's assistant director of annual giving programs—young alumni and student philanthropy. "They're about culture, about awareness, about getting people engaged."

Evidently, the seniors think so too: by the end of May the campaign had raised more than $3,000, with nearly a third of the class participating. Radford says she is gratified by the wide variety of targets the students have designated. "They're giving to Student Life programs, to music, to athletics and SURF and the endowments of their undergraduate houses."

But the recipient most often named is the Art Chateau. A converted house in the northeast corner of campus, it hosts facilities for painting, drawing, ceramics, and other visual arts—none of which require a mouse or a keyboard. Its silk-screening equipment, used by student clubs throughout the year to make T-shirts, is in high demand in the weeks leading up to Ditch Day.

The Caltech Parents page on Facebook recently highlighted one of the fund-raiser's more entertaining events. Dean of Undergraduate Students John Dabiri (MS '03, PhD '05), Master of Student Houses Erik Snowberg, and men's basketball head coach Oliver "Doc" Eslinger spent an April day performing charity calisthenics: $2 a push-up. With 26 students donating a total of nearly $800, the three obliged with 377 push-ups. When Dabiri and Snowberg pledged to match, out of their own pockets, the donation of any student who joined in the workout, 15 of the 26 students accepted their challenge, pumping out an extra 256 push-ups and earning an additional $533.55 in matching funds.

Such activities, says Radford, send a powerful message. "Students' relationships with the Caltech Fund begin at the start of freshman year, and the entire time these seniors have been on campus, philanthropy has been happening all around them. But now that they're actually making their own donations—the first time for many of them—they're seeing how generosity breeds generosity."

She credits last year's seniors with inspiring this year's class. "The Caltech penny press of 2014 demonstrated how exciting a senior gift campaign can be. But more importantly, the class of 2014 taught the class of 2015 that philanthropy can be fun."

This term, students in Biology 1—Principles of Biology—were offered a novel alternative to the traditional final exam: the opportunity to create a two-to-four-minute video explaining some aspect of biology in an interesting, entertaining and, yes, musical way.

Bi 1 is a large lecture course for nonmajors and, for most of them, as close as they will come to biology during their undergraduate career. As the class's instructor, Dianne Newman, professor of biology and geobiology, explains, "It's almost an absurd challenge. How do you teach biology in a substantive and engaging way in 10 weeks to students whose primary interests lie elsewhere?"

Newman found at least one way to meet that challenge. "I have a mid-session break in my class because it's an hour and a half long," says Newman. "After 45 minutes, I show a short video that relates to the content of my lecture just to break things up, to give students a chance to stretch and reengage." One day in April, Professor Newman showed a rap video on Hox gene development created by Stanford students. "The Hox genes are regulatory genes in eukaryotes that are critical for development," says Newman. "It was such a clever video. And so, off the cuff, I said to my Bi 1 students, 'These Stanford kids are pretty good. If any of you can come up with something equally outstanding, I'll give you an automatic A in the class.'"

After class, to Newman's surprise, a student came up to ask exactly what the rules were for this automatic A. If they did a video, could they skip the midterm? Could they skip the final? What about the assignment requiring students to write a hypothesis-driven paper on a topic of their choice? Disarmed, Newman promised she would soon send the class an email that would explain it all. She reflected on the idea and then laid out the rules for the Bi 1 video challenge: an automatic A on just the final exam, but only if the video adhered to a stringent set of rules regarding originality, scientific content, and aesthetic value.

Newman was skeptical anyone would take on the challenge, but in the end, six videos were submitted. All were screened on June 4, the last day of class. All of the students in the class were given clickers to vote on each video—giving it an A, B, or C, based on how well the video fulfilled the criteria. Newman promised to take their votes into consideration as she made her decisions about the adequacy of each video. Newman further enlisted some special A-list guests to attend the showing and give their reactions: Harry Gray, the Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry and founding director of the Beckman Institute; Jonas Peters, the Bren Professor of Chemistry; Cindy Weinstein, vice provost and professor of English; and Bil Clemons, professor of biochemistry. As an added surprise to the students, President Thomas Rosenbaum stopped in for the viewing.

Student videos covered a range of topics, from photosynthesis to metabolism to respiration, and employed a variety of styles, with each video showcasing the unique personalities and creative talents of their creators. Tyler Perez (freshman, planetary science) and Nicholas Meyer (freshman, physics), for example, created a video titled "A Rap about GFP" (GFP, or green fluorescent protein, is used as a marker to visualize protein localization and gene expression). Perez notes that the main challenge was not having a dedicated cameraman, creating the need for "planning the shots beforehand, setting up the tripod, running to the scene to do the acting/dubbing, running back to check the shot, move the camera, repeat."

Rachael Morton (freshman, computer science) and Roohi Dalal (freshman, physics and history) described details about the nuclei of differentiated cells to the tune of Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" in a video they called "Enucleated Space." Morton recalls spending "a few interesting afternoons walking around campus in formal wear, lugging around cameras while lip syncing, as confused-looking tour groups and classmates passed by."

Ashwin Balakrishna (freshman, electrical engineering) and Kelly Woo (freshman, electrical engineering) collaborated on "Photosynthesis," rapping out lyrics like "ATP synthase she the center of it all/I got H+ gradient and now it comes into call" (inspired by Drake's rap video for "Energy"). Woo says, "As corny as this sounds, shooting this video really allowed me to slow down and appreciate how beautiful our campus is."

This may sound like a lot of fun and only a little science, but the Caltech faculty reviewers were impressed. "I'm a little prouder to be a professor at Caltech today," Peters said.

Harry Gray, after viewing the video on respiration created by Ashwin Hari (freshman, computer science) and Hanzhi Lin (freshman, computer science), humorously noted, "I've been studying respiration for a long time, but I learned more in this video than I have in 30 years. I hope you guys will make a lot more videos. I'm going to come to all of them so I don't have to spend all that time reading stupid journals."
 

While reviewing freshman Tara Shankar's (freshman, computer science) video, "Metabolism, Let's Break it Down," Jonas Peters tried to recruit the computer science major to chemistry. He even offered a powerful incentive: "If Professor Newman doesn't give you an A on the final for this video, you can take any course in CCE [the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering], and we will give you an A."

After the last video was shown, Peters, on a more serious note, drew students' attention to all the opportunities that they—as nonmajors in biology—could bring to biology from their very different "corners of the campus."

"Professor Newman's enthusiasm for the class was mirrored by the joie de vivre of the students, who sang, danced, and rapped their way through the central themes of Bi 1," says Weinstein. "Seeing students bring such intelligence, creativity, and downright fun to their studies reminds us of the rewards that come to teachers who inspire."

So did these students earn their prize, the opportunity to spend another afternoon singing and dancing their way across campus while their fellow Bi 1 students grind out their final? The jury—a one-woman jury named Dianne Newman—is still out, but it looks as though the Bi 1 video challenge will be finding its way onto her next Bi 1 syllabus.

In a new class called Design and Construction of Programmable Molecular Systems (BE/CS 196a), taught this term by Assistant Professor of Bioengineering Lulu Qian, undergraduate and graduate students in computer science, computation and neural systems, and bioengineering came together to study a new intersection of their fields: biomolecular computation. "Molecular programming is a really young research field that only has a couple of decades of history," said Qian, introducing the class's final project presentations on Friday, June 5. "But it offers a huge potential for transforming all molecular sciences into information technology."

In recent years, in order to "program" synthetic DNA sequences to accomplish a diverse range of functions, bioengineers have begun to take advantage of their ability to predict how DNA strands interact, exchange their binding partners, and fold.

Over the course of 10 weeks, three student teams in BE/CS 196a had the chance to specialize in one of the possibilities afforded by this technology. Working in the wet lab—a lab where biochemical materials can be handled in test tubes of liquids—one group attempted to simulate rudimentary neural networks that recognize the presence or absence of DNA strands, each representing information about four Caltech undergrad houses. Another designed molecules to compute multistep logic functions that implement two particular "transition rules" involved in a famous conjecture concerning a theoretical model of computation called "cellular automata."

Students in the third group designed DNA "origami." In DNA origami, a technique first developed at Caltech, DNA molecules automatically fold into prescribed shapes that may contain patterns of attachment sites—like a smiley face or a miniature circuit board—based on the molecules' designated sequence.

As used by Qian's students, junior Aditya Karan, a computer science major, and first-year bioengineering graduate student James Parkin, the process begins with a single-strand loop of DNA—the genome of virus M13, which has over 7,000 nucleotides. "Staples" made of matching sequences are used to connect specific points on the loop, so that these points are pulled together, causing the loop to fold into the desired shape. The team focused their efforts on manipulating a set of microscopic square tiles of DNA. In one experiment they created complex patterns on the surface of the squares; in another they designed the tiles to form heart-shaped arrays consisting of 11 tiles of four distinct types.

Although complete control of molecular systems is a long way off, these technologies offer what is essentially a programming language capable of interfacing with a biochemical environment. DNA folding, for example, could be used to design microscopic "boxes" that open and release a therapeutic drug only under certain chemical conditions on the surface of or inside specific type of cells. "What has kind of amazed us is how much we can get done with just DNA," says Parkin. "With DNA, we can design complicated things from scratch. We can't do that with proteins yet."

As Qian notes, programming molecular systems is an area "full of imagination and creativity."

"That's why I want to share these adventures with Caltech students," she says.

Caltech undergraduate and graduate students have collected an impressive array of awards this year, including three Fulbright grants, two Goldwater Scholarships, two Watson Fellowships, two Hertz Fellowships, a Soros Fellowship, a Marshall Scholarship, a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, and 31 National Science Foundation Fellowships.

Fulbright Fellowships

Seniors Jonathan Liu, Charles Tschirhart, and Caroline Werlang were selected as Fulbright Scholars. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government. Seniors and graduate students who compete in the U.S. Fulbright Student Program can apply to one of the more than 160 countries whose universities are willing to host Fulbright Scholars. The scholarship sponsors one academic year of study or research abroad after the bachelor's degree. Liu, Tschirhart, and Werlang will be studying next year in Germany, England, and Switzerland, respectively.

Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships

Sophomore Saaket Agrawal and junior Paul Dieterle were awarded Barry M. Goldwater scholarships for the 2015–16 academic year. The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986 to award scholarships to college students who intend to pursue research careers in science, mathematics, and engineering.

Thomas J. Watson Fellowships

Seniors Janani Mandayam Comar and Aaron Krupp were named 2015 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship winners. Each fellowship is a grant of $30,000 awarded to seniors graduating from a selected group of colleges. According to the Watson Foundation's website, "Fellows conceive original projects, execute them outside of the United States for one year and embrace the ensuing journey. They decide where to go, who to meet and when to change course." Fifty fellows were selected from a pool of nearly 700 candidates.

Hertz Fellowships

Caltech seniors Adam Jermyn and Charles Tschirhart were named 2015 Hertz Fellowship winners. Selected from a pool of approximately 800 applicants, the awardees will receive up to five years of support for their graduate studies. According to the Hertz Foundation, fellows are chosen for their intellect, their ingenuity, and their potential to bring meaningful improvement to society.

Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans

Mohamad Abedi, a PhD candidate in bioengineering, received a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. Thirty fellows, selected from nearly 1,200 applicants "for their potential to make significant contributions to U.S. society, culture, or their academic field," receive up to $90,000 to help cover two years of tuition, and other educational and living expenses, while studying any subject at any university in the United States. The fellowship was established to assist young new Americans—permanent residents, naturalized citizens, or children of naturalized citizen parents—at critical points in their educations.

Gates Cambridge Scholarship

Senior Connie Hsueh, a physics major, was awarded a 2015 Gates Cambridge Scholarship that will fund graduate studies at the University of Cambridge. The Gates Cambridge Scholarship program, established in 2000 through a donation to Cambridge University from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, recognizes young people from around the world who not only excel academically, but also display a commitment to social issues and bettering the world. Hsueh was selected from a pool of 755 applicants.

Marshall Scholarship

Senior Adam Jermyn received the 2015 Marshall Scholarship to pursue graduate studies in Great Britain. Funded by the British government, the Marshall Scholarship provides support for two years of post–bachelor's degree study—covering a student's tuition, books, living expenses, and transportation costs—at any university in the United Kingdom. Each year more than 900 students from across the nation compete for this prestigious scholarship.

NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

The National Science Foundation (NSF) selected 31 current Caltech students and 12 alumni to receive its Graduate Research Fellowships. The awards support three years of graduate study within a five-year fellowship period in research-based master's or doctoral programs in science or engineering.

Caltech's awardees for 2015 are seniors Bridget Connor, Boyu Fan, Mark Greenfield, Bryan He, Adam Jermyn, Robert F. Johnson, Ellen Price, Charles Tschirhart, Max Wang, Benjamin Wang, Caroline Werlang, Patrick Yiu, and Andy J. Zhou; and graduate students Louisa Avellar, Dawna Bagherian, Kevin Cherry, Rebecca Glaudell, Elizabeth Goldstein, Denise Grunenfelder, Nina Gu, Elizabeth Holman, Erik Jue, Kyle Metcalfe, Kelsey Poremba, Denise Schmitz, Rebekah Silva, Chanel Valiente, Grigor Varuzhanyan, Ryan Witkosky (also an alumnus), Emily Wyatt, and Nicole Xu. Caltech alumni in the 2015 class of Graduate Fellows are Karen Dowling, Melissa Hubisz, Pawel Latawiec, Laura Lindzey, Katja Luxem, Rocio Mercado, Bertrand Ottino-Loffler, David Sell, Benjamin Suslick, Jordan Theriot, Ryan Thorngren, and Matthew Voss.

Caltech's class of 2015 is group of smart, creative, and curious individuals. They are analytical thinkers, performers, researchers, engineers, athletes, and leaders who are ready to apply the lessons they have learned from Caltech's rigorous academic environment and the unique experiences they had as part of this close-knit community to pursue future challenges. 

We talked to two of these graduates, Phoebe Ann and Justin Koch, about their years at Caltech and what will come next.

Other graduates share their stories in videos posted on Caltech's Facebook page.

Watch as they and their peers are honored at Caltech's 121st commencement on June 12 at 10 a.m. If you can't be in Pasadena, the ceremony will be live-streamed at http://www.ustream.tv/caltech. You may also follow the action and share your favorite commencement moments on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using #Caltech2015 in your tweets and postings.

Phoebe Ann

Major: Biology and English
House: Lloyd
Hometown: Irvine, California

Why did you originally decide to come to Caltech?

I was attracted by the small class size, and I've found to this day that it is one of Caltech's strongest advantages. Caltech is also extremely supportive of a student's individual endeavors, as demonstrated by the numerous awards and programs that promote independent research, volunteer work, or extracurricular interest projects. The most significant example of this is the Caltech Y, through which I was able to learn how to implement a personal idea or passion into a tangible program that my fellow students and I can all enjoy.

Were you involved in extracurricular activities at Caltech?

My most significant extracurricular activities were implemented through the Caltech Y. My proudest accomplishments were organizing alternative spring break trips to New York for Hurricane Sandy relief and to Costa Rica for community construction. Prior to Caltech, I had never traveled independently, let alone led a group of students to a foreign country. These activities were absolutely crucial to developing myself into an effective community member and future physician.

What were your most memorable experiences?

Aside from my Caltech Y activities, my most memorable experiences were interactions with my fellow Lloydies during freshman year. It was an exciting time of realizing my similarities and differences with others, as well as my ability to function without sleep.

What did you not know about Caltech that you learned after being here?

I did not know how hard Caltech pushed its students. I struggled tremendously upon arriving at Caltech because I was intimidated by all the students who seemed "naturally" intelligent. But Caltech forced me to just shut up and get to work. And when all was said and done, I was able to accomplish so much more than I had ever imagined.

What will you be doing after Caltech?

I will be studying medicine at Feinberg Medical School at Northwestern University in Chicago. After, I would like to be a surgeon or a pediatrician, depending on how well I can maintain a work-life balance.

Any words of advice to incoming students?

Join the Caltech Y! It is critical not only to find a work-life balance outside of the house system, but also to ground your scientific endeavors in a broader purpose: to serve and better your local, national, and international community.

Caltech's class of 2015 is group of smart, creative, and curious individuals. They are analytical thinkers, performers, researchers, engineers, athletes, and leaders who are ready to apply the lessons they have learned from Caltech's rigorous academic environment and the unique experiences they had as part of this close-knit community to pursue future challenges. 

We talked to two of these graduates, Justin Koch and Phoebe Ann, about their years at Caltech and what will come next.

Other graduates share their stories in videos posted on Caltech's Facebook page.

Watch as they and their peers are honored at Caltech's 121st commencement on June 12 at 10 a.m. If you can't be in Pasadena, the ceremony will be live-streamed at http://www.ustream.tv/caltech. You may also follow the action and share your favorite commencement moments on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using #Caltech2015 in your tweets and postings.

Justin Koch

Major: Mechanical Engineering
House: Blacker
Hometown: Townsend, Delaware

Why did you originally decide to come to Caltech?

The rigorous academic environment was certainly a consideration in choosing Caltech. However, I really made my decision after visiting the campus for Prefrosh Weekend. I found the housing system to be a unique experience that was something I had not seen at other schools.

Were you involved in extracurricular activities at Caltech?

The main extracurricular activity I'm involved with is the Caltech Robotics Team. I was part of the group that founded the club my freshmen year, and for the past two years I've led the team through my role as project manager. I've been interested in robotics since middle school and have been involved with robotics teams since sixth grade. We are currently building an underwater autonomous vehicle for a competition called RoboSub.

This past year I've also served as president of Blacker House. I've enjoyed the opportunity to give back to my house, which has definitely helped me enjoy my experience at Caltech.

What was your most memorable experience?

One of my most memorable experiences at Caltech was participating in the ME 72 competition my junior year. We spent two terms designing and building robots to compete in a competition involving head-to-head battle between robots trying to get a soup can to the top of a raised platform. Our hard work paid off and we ended up winning the competition. Though the competition was memorable, I'll never forget all the long hours we spent building the robots.

What did you not know about Caltech that you learned after being here?

I did not fully understand quite how focused Caltech is on theory and research until after arriving here. The rigor of the classes was definitely much harder than anything I had ever done before. However, through my involvement with the Caltech Robotics Team I've been able to balance my knowledge of theory through classes with the applied technical skills I learn through the team.

What will you be doing after Caltech?

After Caltech I will be working as a robotics engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab. I'll be working in section 347 on robotic systems for a variety of environments, including land, space, and ocean applications.

Throughout my career I hope to work on the cutting edge of robotics. Although I am a mechanical engineer, I enjoy working on systems that require skills in not only mechanical engineering but electrical engineering and computer science as well.

Any words of advice to incoming students?

My advice to incoming students is to find an activity besides classwork that you're passionate about. Caltech can be a very intense place, so it's important to find another outlet besides classes. If a club that you want to be a part of doesn't exist, then take the initiative to start one. At Caltech it's very easy to start a club and there are a lot of resources out there to help.

Two Caltech seniors, Adam Jermyn and Kerry Betz, were named as winners of this year's Library Friends' Senior Thesis Prize. The Thesis Prize is intended to encourage undergraduates to complete a formal work of scholarship as a capstone project for their undergraduate career and to recognize sophisticated in-depth use of library and archival research. For their achievement, recipients of the $1,200 prize are listed in the commencement program.

Caltech faculty nominate seniors whose theses they deem to be deserving of the prize. Nominated students then supply a research narrative that explains their research methodology, detailing not only the sources they used, but the way they obtained access to them.

Adam Jermyn, a physics major from Longmeadow, Massachusetts, won the prize for his thesis titled "The Atmospheric Dynamics of Pulsar Companions." The Library Friends committee described it as a "tour de force in its breadth of scholarship, creativity and significance," and Jermyn's faculty adviser Sterl Phinney, professor of theoretical astrophysics and executive officer for astronomy, said in his nomination that the thesis is "comparable to the best PhDs in impact and innovation."

Jermyn's work is a study of the ways in which the radiation emitted from pulsars changes the atmospheres of other nearby stars. Pulsars are a highly magnetized and rapidly rotating type of neutron star, the dense remnants of a star gone supernova. They often orbit closely together with a low-mass "companion star" that can receive enormous amounts of radiation from the nearby pulsar.

"It's been a really fantastic experience. My mentor, Professor Phinney, has been amazing at encouraging me in productive directions and enthusiastically went along with me when I wanted to go off in a strange direction on a hunch," Jermyn says. "You think you've rounded the corner and found the answer, only to realize that you've just walked into more rich and complicated phenomena."

Jermyn, also the recipient of a Hertz Fellowship, a Marshall Scholarship, and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, will start his graduate work at the University of Cambridge in the fall.

Kerry Betz, a chemistry major from Boulder, Colorado, won the prize for her thesis titled "A Novel, General Method for the Construction of C-Si Bonds by an Earth-Abundant Metal Catalyst." Robert Grubbs, the Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry and Betz's faculty adviser, praised the thesis in his nomination for its "significance, creativity, and novelty."

Betz's work concerns the use of a new catalyst to form carbon-silicon bonds through a process called silylation. The newly discovered catalyst is highly efficient and can operate at room temperature and pressure. Traditionally these reactions require expensive and inefficient precious metal catalysts, such as platinum or palladium. Betz's catalyst is made from the abundant metal potassium, which is more effective than state-of-the-art precious metal complexes at running very challenging chemical reactions.

"I've done this research over the last three years, and I really enjoyed how writing it up brought it all together," says Betz. "Writing up my work revealed new questions and directions to pursue. It showed me how unpredictable and exciting research can be." She will continue her research at Caltech for a year and will then begin graduate studies at Stanford University in the fall of 2016.

On July 1, 2015, Doug Rees, the Roscoe Gilkey Dickinson Professor of Chemistry, will begin serving as the new dean of graduate studies at Caltech.

"Doug's experience and concern with graduate education make him an ideal choice for dean of graduate studies. I am very pleased that he is willing to make this commitment to the Institute and its students," says Anneila Sargent, vice president for student affairs and the Ira S. Bowen Professor of Astronomy.

As the new dean, Rees will be the principal administrator and representative of Caltech's graduate education program, responsible for attending to concerns regarding the welfare of graduate students as well as for upholding the Institute's rules and policies.

"There are many groups essential to the effective operation of our graduate program that I want to get to know better, starting with the graduate students, the Graduate Office staff, and the option administrators and option reps," says Rees. "In my 26 years at Caltech, I've gained an appreciation for how the graduate programs in biochemistry and molecular biophysics and in chemistry operate, but the cultures in different options across campus can vary significantly, and I look forward to better understanding these distinctions."

Rees says that he is also very much looking forward to working directly with graduate students, staff, and faculty on behalf of the graduate program. Of particular interest during his tenure will be issues relating to the well-being and professional development of graduate students.

"I find research to be an adventure that, while exhilarating, is also challenging, frustrating, and even stressful; those aspects, however, are not incompatible with having a positive student experience and a supportive environment," Rees says. He adds that his priorities will be to raise fellowship support, increase the diversity of the graduate student body, and ensure that students have access to appropriate support services such as health care, counseling, and day care. "In addition, I also hope to be able to explore mechanisms to better prepare students for life after Caltech, including both academic and nonacademic career options," he says.

In his new post, Rees will take the place of C. L. "Kelly" Johnson Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering Joseph Shepherd, who has served as the dean of graduate studies since 2009. "Joe leaves big shoes to fill and the campus owes him a huge debt of gratitude for all he has accomplished as dean of graduate studies. What I have learned from watching him in action over the past six years, and more recently as he has been helping me during this transition period, is that the most important quality for the dean is to care about the students—and I will definitely be working to follow his example," Rees says.

Rees received his undergraduate degree from Yale University in 1974 and his PhD from Harvard in 1980, becoming a professor at Caltech in 1989. An investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Rees also served as the executive officer for chemistry from 2002 to 2006 and the executive officer for biochemistry and molecular biophysics from 2007 to 2015.

Joseph Shepherd (PhD '81), the C. L. "Kelly" Johnson Professor of Aeronautics and professor of mechanical engineering, is leaving his post as dean of graduate studies to succeed Anneila Sargent (MS '67, PhD '78), the Ira S. Bowen Professor of Astronomy, as vice president for student affairs. Shepherd's new role is effective September 15.

Sargent, who served the campus as the leader of student affairs the last eight years, announced in March that she was leaving the post to return to research and teaching full time. Shepherd, who joined the Caltech faculty in 1993, has served the last six years as the dean of graduate studies.

We recently sat down with Shepherd to talk about his past role and his new one, his strengths and goals, and his experience at Caltech.

Q: What does the vice president for student affairs do?

A: Student Affairs includes the offices of the undergraduate and graduate deans as well as obvious things like the registrar, undergraduate admissions, fellowships and study abroad, the career center, the health center, and the counseling center. It also includes things you might not think of—athletics; performing and visual arts, which includes the music programs, the theater program, the various arts programs, and all of the faculty and instructors that make these programs possible; and a whole group of organizations lumped under "auxiliaries."

The term "auxiliaries" is misleading, because they're central to student life. Housing and dining are the biggest parts, but there are services like the C-Store, the Red Door Café, the Caltech Store and Wired.

Q: What makes this role exciting for you?

A:  People speculate about what it is that makes Caltech a great school. A lot of folks say, "Well, it's because it's so small." But I think it's also because we work with people instead of creating some bureaucratic mechanism to solve problems. We say, "All right, what's the issue here? How can we resolve this?" instead of, "We need to create a rule. And then we need to create a group to enforce the rule." My approach is to ask, "What do we want the outcome to be?" In Student Affairs, you want the outcome to be something that supports the students, supports the faculty, and then you make sure that it's not going to adversely affect the Institute.

Q: Are there any changes coming, any initiatives you want to establish?

A: We need to think about how we build on the strengths we have and improve the things that we're weakest at. Before you make any changes to an organization, you need to understand those two things. There are a lot of parts to Student Affairs, so I need to understand the strong points of those organizations, and then get them to help me formulate what's important to do.

You always have to be careful of unintended consequences. As they say in chess, you want to think several moves deep. All right, suppose we do that. What will it mean for different parts of our population? Do we make this choice based on the data we have, or do we need more data? Will there be effects on people we haven't thought about? Maybe we need to go talk to those people.

When you have the authority to change things, you also have the responsibility to ask, "Are these the right changes?" Nothing happens in isolation. Anything you do is invariably going to wind up touching quite a few people.

Q: You've been dean of graduate studies since 2009. Did you consider taking a breather before jumping into this?

A: Well, much to my surprise, I found that being the dean of graduate studies was rewarding in many different ways. Sometimes you had to do some difficult things, but I actually liked being the dean. I was able, to some extent, to continue my research. I did some teaching—although last year I taught a major course all three terms, and I had my research group—and I was the dean of graduate studies. That taught me a lesson: a man's got to know his limitations.

So when I was asked if I would take this position, I did think about taking a break and not doing it. I enjoy my research and I enjoy teaching. I enjoy working with students, but I also enjoy trying to help the Institute as a whole. Here at Caltech, we pride ourselves on the notion that we have this very special environment. We have this small school, and we have dedicated professionals that work together with faculty to nurture that environment—having faculty who are invested in participating in the key administrative roles is essential.

When I was a graduate student here, my adviser was Brad Sturtevant [MS '56, PhD '60, and a lifelong faculty member thereafter]. Brad was the executive officer for aeronautics [1972-76]. He was in charge of the committee that built the Sherman Fairchild Library and he was on the faculty board. He emphasized to me that being involved in administration was just as valuable as all the other aspects of being a faculty member. He was a dedicated researcher, but he also felt strongly that you should be a good citizen. You should contribute.

Q: It seems like this is more than just a duty to you, though.

A: I'm looking forward to it. I'm also very conscious of the responsibility. I think it's going to be important for us all to think about how we maintain the excellence of the Institute and that we imagine how this place is going to evolve. As society evolves around us, we will naturally wind up changing. We need to do that in a thoughtful way so that we continue to be the special organization that we are.

At the end of the day, I'm counting on help from the faculty and staff. Caltech works because of the committed individuals within our organizations, the personal connections we form as we work together and the cooperation across the campus that these connections enable.  It's a collective enterprise.

I think administration is not something that's done to people. It's being responsible for making sure that folks have the right work environment, the right job assignments, and the right resources. It's making sure we're doing the right things with the finite resources we have. One of our former presidents said something that's always stuck with me: an administrator's goals are not about their own career so much as helping the careers of others. You need to think about how you're helping the people working for you, because they have goals and aspirations. That's where you take your satisfaction.

On the steep, tea-covered hillsides of Ilam in eastern Nepal, where 25 percent of households live below the poverty level and electricity is scarce, clean running water is scarcer still. What comes out of the region's centralized distribution systems is unfiltered, untreated, and teeming with nitrates, viruses, and E. coli. Purifying it is the consumer's responsibility.

But wood and yak dung, the only available fuels for boiling water, are precious, and purification tablets impart an unpleasant chlorine taste. The result? During the rainy season, local hospitals overflow with typhoid and gastrointestinal cases, mostly involving children and tainted runoff.

That may change, thanks to a gravity flow and slow-sand filtration system designed by Caltech undergraduates. They represent EWB-Caltech, one of the newest chapters of Engineers Without Borders USA, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) whose mission is to design and implement sustainable engineering projects in underprivileged communities.

Founded in 2012 by Sarah Wright (BS '13, bioengineering), EWB-Caltech already has about 30 members. This summer, a half dozen of the chapter's members are traveling to Ilam, where they are staying with local villagers while helping to oversee and implement the system's construction. The hillside will be partly excavated and then reconstructed. Layers of rock, gravel, sand, polyethylene sheeting, and soil will soak up rainfall, filtering and purifying it as it trickles into underground water. Pipes tapping into the underground water will run downhill to a small communal enclosure made of poured concrete, providing a reliable supply of clean water for about 100 households, with another 200 indirectly affected.

The students will not be working alone, says their mentor, environmental engineering consultant Gordon Treweek (MS '71, PhD '75) who is partnering with Caltech engineering students for the first time. "All EWB projects are community-driven, with the local workforce providing much of the labor. And we've received tremendous logistical support, including interpreters, from the Namsaling Community Development Center, an NGO in Ilam that had previously worked with an EWB chapter from the University of Colorado, Boulder."

According to EWB requirements the Nepalese must contribute 5 percent of the project's budget. EWB-Caltech copresidents Jihoon Lee (a senior in bioengineering) and Nauman Javed (a senior in physics) acknowledge that successfully coming up with the remainder—over $20,000—involved nearly continuous fund-raising. "We've been applying for grants, soliciting private donations, partnering with companies, especially water-related and environmental corporations, and we held a benefit dinner in January that was largely attended by Caltech faculty and friends," says Lee.

Both a 10-day on-site assessment trip last summer and this summer's trip were covered by individual donations and grants. The assessment trip took Treweek, Javed, and fellow Caltech senior Webster Guan (chemical engineering) to Ilam to meet with the NGO; to survey the local community of about 100 families to ascertain their needs and willingness to assist in the construction and ongoing maintenance of the water tap stand; and to gather predesign data for planning construction and estimating costs.

"The support we have received from Caltech alumni directly and through their networks of contacts at Northrop Grumman and Boeing has been invaluable in helping to keep this project moving forward," Treweek says.

After the assessment trip, the students spent the 2014–15 school year preparing detailed engineering documents using computer-aided design techniques. In this, they were assisted by the water-resource engineering firms Carollo Engineers and Montgomery Watson Harza, whose pro bono involvement did not surprise Treweek. "Consulting engineering firms frequently donate resources for projects like this," he says. "It's socially responsible, and it gives them a chance to observe future engineers addressing the four traditional phases of engineering: planning, design, fund-raising, and construction."

With preventable infectious diseases a leading component of Ilam's one-in-three infant mortality rate, the project includes a public-education component. "Besides training the local villagers who will maintain our spring-water source protection system," says Javed, "we plan to visit local schools, demonstrate how the system works, teach a little germ theory."

But no amount of careful planning can guarantee success. Similar projects have failed due to engineering problems, misaligned long-term governance strategies, eleventh-hour reprioritizations by the community, even simple miscommunication. "We've drafted plenty of contingency plans," affirms Lee, "with great support from EWB-USA. Their stringent review procedures covered every engineering and social aspect of the project, and they've given us detailed feedback on our drawings, schedules, and rationales."

After the implementation phase—which ends just one week before classes resume back in Pasadena—EWB-Caltech will continue to monitor the site for five to six years. By then the current members will have moved on and a new group of student leaders will have taken over this project. But for now, they are spending their summer trying to build a better world, drop by drop.

Trustees Gordon (PhD '54) and Betty Moore have pledged $100 million to Caltech, the second-largest single contribution in the Institute's history. With this gift, they have created a permanent endowment and entrusted the choice of how to direct the funds to the Institute's leadership—providing lasting resources coupled with uncommon freedom.

"Those within the Institute have a much better view of what the highest priorities are than we could have," Intel Corporation cofounder Gordon Moore explains. "We'd rather turn the job of deciding where to use resources over to Caltech than try to dictate it from outside."

Applying the Moores' donation in a way that will strengthen the Institute for generations to come, Caltech's president and provost have decided to dedicate the funds to fellowships for graduate students.

"Gordon and Betty Moore's incredibly generous gift will have a transformative effect on Caltech," says President Thomas F. Rosenbaum, holder of the Institute's Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor of physics. "Our ultimate goal is to provide fellowships for every graduate student at Caltech, to free these remarkable young scholars to pursue their interests wherever they may lead, independent of the vicissitudes of federal funding. The fellowships created by the Moores' gift will help make the Institute the destination of choice for the most original and creative scholars, students and faculty members alike."

Further multiplying the impact of the Moores' contribution, the Institute has established a program that will inspire others to contribute as well. The Gordon and Betty Moore Graduate Fellowship Match will provide one additional dollar for every two dollars pledged to endow Institute-wide fellowships. In this way, the Moores' $100 million commitment will increase fellowship support for Caltech by a total of $300 million.

Says Provost Edward M. Stolper, the Carl and Shirley Larson Provostial Chair and William E. Leonhard Professor of Geology: "Investigators across campus work with outstanding graduate students to advance discovery and to train the next generation of teachers and researchers. By supporting these students, the Moore Match will stimulate creativity and excellence in perpetuity all across Caltech. We are grateful to Gordon and Betty for allowing us the flexibility to devote their gift to this crucial priority."

The Moores describe Caltech as a one-of-a-kind institution in its ability to train budding scientists and engineers and conduct high-risk research with world-changing results—and they are committed to helping the Institute maintain that ability far into the future.

"We appreciate being able to support the best science," Gordon Moore says, "and that's something that supporting Caltech lets us do."

The couple's extraordinary philanthropy already has motivated other benefactors to follow their example, notes David L. Lee, chair of the Caltech Board of Trustees.

"The decision that Gordon and Betty made—to give such a remarkable gift, to make it perpetual through an endowment, and to remove any restrictions as to how it can be used—creates a tremendous ripple effect," Lee says. "Others have seen the Moores' confidence in Caltech and have made commitments of their own. We thank the Moores for their leadership."

The Moores consider their gift a high-leverage way of fostering scientific research at a place that is close to their hearts. Before he went on to cofound Intel, Gordon Moore earned a PhD in chemistry from Caltech.

"It's been a long-term association that has served me well," he says.

Joining him in Pasadena just a day after the two were married, Betty Moore became active in the campus community as well. A graduate of San Jose State College's journalism program, she secured a job at the Ford Foundation's new Pasadena headquarters and also made time to come to campus to participate in community activities, including the Chem Wives social club.

"We started out at Caltech," she recalls. "I had a feeling that it was home away from home. It gives you a down-home feeling when you're young and just taking off from family. You need that connection somehow."

After earning his PhD from Caltech in 1954, Gordon Moore took a position conducting basic research at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. Fourteen years and two jobs later, he and his colleague Robert Noyce cofounded Intel Corp. Moore served as executive vice president of the company until 1975, when he took the helm. Under his leadership—as chief executive officer (1975 to 1987) and chairman of the board (1987 to 1997)—Intel grew from a Mountain View-based startup to a giant of Silicon Valley, worth more than $140 billion today.

Moore is widely known for "Moore's Law," his 1965 prediction that the number of transistors that can fit on a chip would double every year. Still relevant 50 years later, this principle pushed Moore and his company—and the tech industry as a whole—to produce continually more powerful and cheaper semiconductor chips.

Gordon Moore joined the Caltech Board of Trustees in 1983 and served as chair from 1993 to 2000. That same year, he and his wife established the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, an organization dedicated to creating positive outcomes for future generations in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the world.

Among numerous other honors, Gordon Moore is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and a recipient of the National Medal of Technology and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

This week, CaltechAUTHORS—the Institute's repository for research publications authored by Caltech faculty and other researchers—reached a landmark 50,000 entries since the archive launched in 2001. Professor of Physics Chris Martin's recent work, a paper titled "A giant protogalactic disk linked to the cosmic web," was the 50,000th entry.

CaltechAUTHORS now has more content than those of almost all other U.S. universities, including Harvard University, Duke University, and Washington University in Saint Louis. More than six million documents have been downloaded from the Caltech repository since the library began recording download totals in July 2008, shortly before the Faculty Board requested the library to document the Institute's output starting in March 2009.

"The six million downloads in just over seven years is a significant figure in the academic community, as is the 50,000 records," says engineering librarian George Porter. "Six million downloads is not the largest number of downloads for an institutional repository, but it compares favorably with many other institutions that are much, much larger than Caltech."

The large number of articles in the repository results from a collaboration between the faculty and the Caltech Library. Embracing the importance of the repository and its role in increasing the accessibility of scientific research, the faculty cooperates with the library to submit published papers and voted in 2013 to approve an Institute-wide open-access policy. Seventy-three percent of all materials in the repository are now open access.

In addition to facilitating new deposits, the library is also working to add capabilities to the repository that would be useful to researchers—such as storing other research materials and data sets in addition to publications.

"The digital repository is one of the many ways that the library is looking to preserve Caltech research materials for the long term and to increase the accessibility of Caltech research to a broader audience," Porter says.

In August, five Caltech undergraduates returned from a summer in Japan, where they worked as interns for Mitsubishi's Advanced Technology and Information Technology R&D centers; for Kaneka, a chemical manufacturing company; and for NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile phone carrier. All study Japanese language at Caltech with Kayoko Hirata, lecturer in Japanese. According to Hirata, these internships "mostly go to second year or third year students of Japanese." Typically about half of the students intern for companies in Tokyo, while the other half are located in the Kyoto/Osaka area.

The Caltech–Japan Internship Program was started in 1994. "There are over 150 alumni of the program now," says Hirata. In earlier years, Hirata says, students were drawn to Japanese language study from a point of view having more to do with science and technology. Today, she says, "their interest in Japanese culture often begins in childhood; with the influence of comics and movies, anime and games at that age, we see more students coming to college with an desire to study the Japanese language."

As interns, students collaborate on industrial projects with Japanese companies, usually living in company-owned dormitory housing. They are immersed in Japanese business culture while simultaneously honing their language skills. Language learning in the Caltech–Japan Internship Program is reciprocal: Caltech students go to Japan to converse in Japanese, and, says Hirata, "often the reason the Japanese companies want interns from the United States is that they want to communicate in English."

In late July, this year's interns met in Tokyo with their employer representatives and with Barbara Green, interim dean of undergraduate students. They had an opportunity there to share stories and reconnect midway through their internships. "Dr. Hirata's dedication to the Japan internship program has made it a real success over the years, and it has been very beneficial to our students," says Green. "Students expand their horizons by living in another culture for an entire summer and also improve their Japanese language skills. The opportunity to work for a large Japanese corporation gives the interns an experience that may serve them very well in the future."

Over the course of the summer, the interns also set out on their own travels. Senior in physics Dryden Bouamalay, an intern with Mitsubishi Advanced Technology R&D, reports that one of the most compelling places he visited was Hiroshima. "I think it was really important to visit Hiroshima because of the war's enormous impact on Japanese culture. It wasn't a 'fun' visit, but it felt necessary," says Bouamalay. He also had the opportunity to savor a local specialty: okonomiyaki, sometimes described as "Japanese pizza," a thin pancake topped with grilled vegetables, seafood, or meat.

This October, the Caltech–Japan interns will present slides and brief talks about their experiences with the program to an audience of Caltech faculty, staff, and students—many of whom are considering applying to the program next year—as well a representative or two from local Japanese companies.