Astrophysicist and author Ray Jayawardhana became Caltech’s tenth president on July 1. He previously served as provost at Johns Hopkins University and dean of Cornell University’s College of Arts and Sciences, and earlier spent a decade at the University of Toronto. Alongside his academic leadership, he studies the origins and evolution of planetary systems and writes about science for the public. On October 5, Jayawardhana spoke with the Tech about settling into the role and his emerging priorities for research, student life, and Caltech’s impact beyond campus.

Mark Wise died on July 10, 2026. He was a member of the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy at Caltech for forty-three years. The obituaries will say, correctly, that he was one of the great theoretical physicists of his generation: an architect of heavy-quark effective theory, a student of Fred Gilman at Stanford, recruited to Pasadena by Murray Gell-Mann, a member of the P5 panel that set the national course for particle physics, and for sixteen years the principal investigator of Caltech’s high energy physics program. All of that is true, and none of it is the reason the people who worked beside him are bereft.

On October 9, 2023, Mark came to Dabney dinner to present a challenge to Dabney House. He explained that on a recent visit to a colleague, he noticed a LEGO minifigure of the colleague standing on the desk. He thought this was extremely powerful, so he challenged Dabney to make a LEGO minifigure of himself, with a reward of $1000 donated to the house if they could pull it off.

Like many Caltech physics students of my generation (2016-2020), I met Mark during Ph125A. I was the kind of student to sit in the front row and ask questions, so I’d say I got to know him pretty well in class.

I met Mark Wise in 2022, during my freshman year at Caltech. My first-year SURF mentor connected us because of my interests in theoretical particle physics, and his work at the time was directly aligned with our project.

PALAISEAU, France — Rafael Crespo (BS ’26) traded the familiar backdrop of California’s San Gabriel Valley for the suburban outskirts of Paris for a term. As an exchange student at École Polytechnique, known on campus as “L’X,” Crespo found an environment that challenged his Caltech routine in many ways. The sprawling campus sits on a plateau near Palaiseau, a 40-minute train ride outside Paris. The institution traces its roots back to 1794 during the French Revolution, and is one of the wo

October 17, 2005 October 15, 1999 October 17, 1969

Pizza at 4,630 meters, the Kissing Wall, and one very long summit night. Previously: a lost bag, four rowdy lads from Leeds, and two cold nights on the Machame Route. Now the mountain gets serious. Day 3 The Mountain, a Naughty Babe Altitude gain: 120m A thing about living in Southern California is the sheer amount of Spanish you absorb. Before Caltech, my Spanish was confined to movie references. Those references might raise eyebrows over stereotypes, but for a kid in Sub-Saharan

I was not expecting much from Scandinavia. To be honest, I was a little afraid of whether the locals would be kind to foreigners, bringing back flashbacks of communication difficulties during my time in Japan. I also wondered if the countries, which seemed culturally homogenous, would be welcoming of my family and me, who are fairly Indian — we talk in Tamil and pack our own meals on flights and trains. I was very pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong on all counts. Mostly, I was surprised at

This month, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Caltech are celebrating 90 years of partnership, having worked together on the world’s most advanced guidance and navigation systems in space. In the bird world, many Caltech birds are also masters of precision flight, known for their signature hunting behavior – flycatching. They launch from a stationary position, track a moving target with pinpoint accuracy, intercept it at the best moment, and return to where they started. This sally-and-ret

TACIT House on 275 S. Hill Avenue, made time-traveling haven. (Image: Kari Coleman) As Caltech’s academic year finished up at the end of May, I received a printed invitation to a “Time Traveler Party." The invitation arrived after I attended. Earlier, I’d been directed to a registration link that explained, “Only two events of this kind have been tried before — a time travelers’ convention at MIT

Mark at the blackboard. (Credit: Clara Murgui) Mark B. Wise, Caltech’s John A. McCone Professor of High Energy Physics and a leading theoretical particle physicist, died July 10 at age 72. Wise spent more than four decades at Caltech, where his work helped shape modern particle physics and where generations of students knew him as an unusually approachable professor with a dry sense of humor. His m

Current Caltech undergraduates are talented, accomplished, and frequently dissatisfied. Many leave Caltech less willing to recommend their student experience to others than their peers at MIT and Ivy League schools. Alumni can attest that similar dissatisfaction with the undergraduate student experience was not present in earlier years. What has been lost? Certainly, the stresses of Caltech have not changed. Each year, Caltech recruits the best of the best in science, admitting them in extremely small entering classes (the Class of 2029 has only 248 enrolled students) under highly selective admission standards (the enrolled students in the Class of 2029 reflect only 2.2 percent of the 11,285 individuals who applied for admission).

California needs more homes than it is building. In 2022, the Statewide Housing Plan from the Department of Housing and Community Development called for 2.5 million homes to be built by 2030 in order to address the housing shortage. For the past three years, an average of 104,085 homes per year were authorized by building permits in the state, one-third of the 312,500 annual pace implied by the target. At Nova Cottage Co. in Pasadena, CEO Caroline

Hello everyone from Housing and Dining Services! As we kick off a brand new academic year, we want to take a moment to welcome you all back to campus. We are incredibly excited to see familiar faces and can’t wait to get to know all the new students joining our community this fall. World Cup Food Fest We hope everyone enjoyed last Friday’s (Oct. 2) Food Fest! It was fantastic seeing the community come together to enjoy our World Cup finalist and champion-themed foods, as well as the speci

Arabella Camunez arrived in Denmark ready for a different style of learning. She also found a welcoming community, an abundance of castles and winter days with only a few hours of daylight. Arabella, a member of Caltech’s Class of 2027 studying chemical engineering, spent fall 2025 at the Technical University of Denmark, known as DTU, through Caltech’s Copenhagen Scholars Program. “I have really enjoyed my time at the Danish Technical University,” Arabella wrote. “Both the international studen

The personal belongings of Caltech professors past, including Richard Feynman, Linus Pauling, and Clair Patterson, went on the auction block, among other scientifically historic items. This summer, as part of its Geek Week, Sotheby’s hosted a History of Science & Technology auction at its New York headquarters on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, which featured several items that were once housed in Pasadena. Lots spanned over two centuries and numerous fields in science and technology. Items p

A SATIRE advice column about alive, ahaha, and everything in between! Brought to you by the one and only California Tech. See below for wisdom (?) from Quails past and scan the QR code to submit your own questions for future issues! How do Question the Quail articles get written? WATER!!! LOTS OF WATER!!! THAT IS THE ONLY WAY TO WRITE QUAIL ARTICLES SINCE IT IS VERY HOT IN PASADENA!!! **Wh

A budget adventurer, four rowdy lads from Leeds, and one relentless case of gas on the Machame Route There is something out there, and something in here. More often than not, I go looking for what’s out there to forget what’s happening in here. Sometimes it’s simpler than that. Just a burning curiosity about what lies beyond in me: the landscapes, the people, the perspectives, the challenges. This summer, I got the chance to visit the Roof of Africa. The trip was mostly born of a need to do

October 2, 2006 October 7, 2002

Young Ventures Adds Caltech to Its Scouting Network Editor’s note: Camilla is a co-founder of Young Ventures and serves as its Caltech partner. Young Ventures is a venture capital platform run by students at nine universities. It launched publicly on September 1 with Caltech as one of its partner schools. The others are Stanford, Harvard, NYU, Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, ETH Zurich and Bocconi. Davide Franchini founded the platform, and each campus has one student partner. The idea is to find

After five years of volunteering under different acronyms, I officially became by far the oldest orientation leader in fall 2026. I enjoy the festive (and freebie-loaded) orientation weeks, but more importantly, the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed new students rejuvenate my excitement about a place that feels a bit too familiar. The yearly revitalization of our campus matters for both first-years and old-timers. For new students, it is the season to find their footing by declaring majors or joinin

Strictly speaking, predators are animals that eat other animals, so a large proportion of our campus species qualify, including the undergrads ordering beef pho, the squirrels eating baby hummingbirds, and the occasionally cannibalistic turtles. While you are still blinking in disbelief and digesting that info, I am going to limit this column to a few obvious predators: those deemed dangerous by the consensus of two security forces – Caltech Security and the natural security league of American c

With the historic heat wave temporarily subsiding, our Caltech campus settles into a new academic year. As the Tech’s resident wildlife columnist, I’m here to extend a warm welcome to everyone new to Caltech — though after this summer, “warm” may not be the compliment it once was. Like many urban areas around the world, Caltech is an ecosystem where humans and other animals coexist. The campus is small, but a one-hour walk around it can easily turn up thirty wildlife species. In this guide I hi

September 25, 1958 September 22, 1989 September 28, 2001

NASA announced on May 22 that it will open the next contract to manage and operate the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to competition, marking a potentially significant change in the nearly seven-decade relationship among NASA, Caltech, and JPL. Caltech has managed JPL for NASA since 1958, when the laboratory was transferred from the U.S. Army to the newly established space agency. JPL itself trace

(Photo: Caltech News) As Thomas F. Rosenbaum prepares to conclude twelve years as Caltech’s president, the Institute stands between continuity and transition. Under Rosenbaum’s tenure, Caltech expanded its physical campus, deepened its investment in quantum science and sustainability, increased the proportion of Pell-eligible students, and navigated a turbulent national climate for higher education an

On May 27, California Senator Adam Schiff visited Caltech for a tour that moves from the hardware of quantum computing to the philosophical puzzles of quantum mechanics. Schiff, joined by his wife Eve, toured Prof. Manuel Endres’ lab, met with President Thomas F. Rosenbaum, and spoke with John Preskill about entanglement, hidden variables, many worlds, time travel, and what Feynman might have thought of AI-generated Feynman lectures.

On a Saturday afternoon this spring, part of Caltech’s inaugural Integrated Core cohort found itself somewhere few first-year lab sections go: wandering the aisles of Home Depot. They were looking for tubing, buckets, connectors, and whatever else might help them build small-scale carbon capture systems from scratch. One group was growing algae. Another was working with limestone. A third was thinkin

As Mother’s Day has just passed and Father’s Day is coming up, this issue will talk about parenting in the nonhuman animal world. While all but one photo was taken off campus, a lot of the animals (mostly birds as I am a bird expert) mentioned in this article can be found in the adjacent Pasadena area, so keep your eyes out for spring activity! One of the greatest missions in spring for many animals is to raise a generation of young and graduate them into independent life. This intense process

A year after the Eaton Fire ravaged Altadena, climate scientists are asking uncomfortable questions about why breakthrough discoveries aren’t translating into climate action—and finding answers in community organizing In Chen 100, the evening’s panel wasn’t your typical academic climate discussion. Sure, there were JPL scientists who operate Mars rovers and analyze biodiversity with terabytes of sat

The Library in My Head Was Always Open: A Caltech Student on the Invisible Disabilities We Carry The Body That Betrayed Me, the Mind That Wouldn’t Stop There is a specific kind of silence that lives inside high-achieving students. It is not the silence of a quiet library or a sleeping dorm room. It is the silence of a mind that has been running for so long, so loudly, that the noise has become i

The Tech is collecting student input for future coverage on the Honor Code, exam formats and related topics. Caltech’s Honor Code states, “No member of the Caltech community shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community.” In classes, the Honor Code is often reflected in rules about collaboration, outside resources, exams and tools such as large langua

There’s a particular kind of audacity required to fail spectacularly at being a cocktail waitress and somehow turn that failure into a career-defining opportunity. Melissa Magsaysay has made a career out of this kind of alchemy—transforming what others might see as limitations into launching pads, and using fashion journalism to reshape who gets to be seen and heard in an industry notorious for its gat

Hi Tech readers! I’ve been very busy these past two weeks—nonstop lab work on weekends as I finished preparing for one beamtime, and am starting preparations for a second beamtime now! As a result, I did not have time to review any of the remaining restaurants in the SGV Food Passport yet. I will have more time in July, so I will try to swing by them then! For now—because I know you would feel deprived without a food review from me—I will just tell you about an adventure Kayane and I had when

Photo credits: Edie Tyebkhan Photography In the bubble of STEM academia, the ages 22-33 are reminiscent of college graduations, graduate studies, and perhaps a postdoc or two while navigating the faculty search process. Along the way, scholars may assemble portfolios and grants alike to request funding for their studies. The musical world is not too different from ours. On April 11, 2026, eight young classical singers showcased their portfolios and competed for grants in the final round

On April 11, Caltech students traveled to the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Arcadia for a Make-A-Difference Day service project organized by the Caltech Y. Volunteers spent the morning removing Algerian ivy from tree trunks and root systems, helping protect the Arboretum’s plant life from invasive overgrowth. The 127-acre Arboretum, established as a public garden in 1947, sits on historic Rancho Santa Anita, once known to the native Tongva people as Aleupkigna, or “the plac

On May 19, an anonymous Reddit user posted in r/Caltech, a Reddit forum for Caltech-related posts, alleging food safety, sanitation, and workplace issues at Browne Dining Hall. The post appeared under the username “No-Environment-3923” and was titled “PSA from a former cook: Be very careful eating at Caltech Dining Halls (Browne).” The Tech messaged the user through Reddit, who accepted the m

May 27, 2026, marked my fifth anniversary of my arrival at Caltech, when I was freshly off the boat – or rather, off the plane. Here in Southern California, the weather seems almost unchanged from one day to the next, and the lack of dramatic seasonal shifts can create the illusion that time is stagnant (unless you are a birder paying close attention to migrants). But as we approach this year’s commencement, I cannot help but reflect on how quickly time has passed. Out of more than 8 billion pe

On May 16, in Frautschi Hall, Katherine Vondy’s

A recent cybersecurity incident involving Canvas, the learning-management system operated by Instructure and used throughout Caltech, disrupted universities during exams week and raised concerns about the possible exposure of user data. Instructure claims it detected unauthorized activity on April 29 and additional related activity on May 7, when some users saw altered Canvas pages; the company temporarily placed Canvas in maintenance mode and late

A courtroom sketch that renders Cole Thomas Allen, center, appearing before U.S. Magistrate Moxila Upadhyaya, in federal court, Thursday, April 30 in Washington. (Image: Dana Verkouteren/AP) Federal authorities have identified Cole Thomas Allen, a 31-year-old Torrance man, as the suspect in the April

Frequent passersby of southwest campus will have noticed a recent shift in the landscape along Wilson Avenue. Large areas of grass have turned brown and crispy, in apparent contrast with the springtime bloom of the surroundings (Figure 1). While it may look unsightly now, this is only the first step in a multi-year project by the Caltech Facilities department to restore this land’s original, natural beauty. ![Figure 1. Photo credit: Michael Gutierrez](https://xguzskbxiptvhbyggkpl.supabase.co/st

(Photo: Bloomberg/Getty Images) All 22 members of the National Science Board (NSB), which oversees the National Science Foundation (NSF), were removed on April 24 without explanation. Members were notified by email that their positions were “terminated, effective immediately.” They included Aaron Dominguez (BS ’92), the board’s vice chair and provost of the Catholic University of America, and board me

The 2016/Coachella-inspired stage was rife with symbols from the era, including Nyan Cat, rainbow poop emojis, dabbing unicorns, and an angelic Harambe (may he rest in peace). (Photos: Damian R. Wilson) On the night of May 16, Fleming House staged its own festival revival with “Flemchella,” a 2016/Coachella-themed Interhouse that invited students to “Blast From the Past” in the Fleming courtyard fro

_The Interhouse featured the promised neon pyramid, a shimmering deluge from a model Nile, eschatological wall art, and

![The cast, from left to right: Sullivan Braun as Lt. Nicholas Baron (Baron Tuzenbach), Jacob Buligan as Andrew Prozorov (Andrei), Sarah Gates as Natasha, Prof. Michael Vanier as Dr. John Chamberlain (Ivan Chebutykin), Ellis Spickermann as Irene (Irina), Marcin Kurowski as Lt. Col. Alexander Vershinin, Julie Belville as Masha, Dima Burov as Theodore Culligan (Fyodor Kulygin), Rémy Morgan as Olga, Michael Gutierrez as Cpt. Sully Sullivan (Vassily Solyony), and Therese Bagsit as Anita (Anfisa). (C

On a warm California evening this past Monday, May 11th, the Dabney Lounge at Caltech became an unlikely intersection of medieval scholarship, literary fiction, and cutting-edge artificial intelligence ethics. In a campus that feels so arid and scientifically focused, escaping for one hour in literature and fancy words was extremely beneficial! Bruce Holsinger, the Linden Kent Memorial Professor of English at the University of Virginia, arrived as someone essential to our current moment: a story

Hello again from Housing and Dining Services! We hope everyone has been having a great term. We wanted to take a moment to drop in and provide some quick information as we head into the final stretch of the academic year. Try the new Vietnamese coffee at Broad Cafe. (Image: Miguel Campos) Housing Updates 2026 Fall Housing Lottery: The Fall Housing Lottery is currently in t

Editor’s Note: What follows is an extract from an achronological artifact recently found on the steps of the Tech’s Pasadena office building: an apparent dispatch from the future, inexplicably recovered in time for our May 19 issue. TACIT House on 275 S. Hill Avenue, made time-traveling haven. (Image: Kari Coleman) Most parties don’t become history. But the ones that do tend

On May 1, 2, and 3, Caltech EXPLiCIT brought another Shakespeare classic to the Ramo Auditorium stage: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s always a pleasure to watch this play, no matter how many versions you’ve already seen. EXPLiCIT is made up of bright, fresh minds with a real interest in art and culture, and that spirit shapes both how they perform and how we receive them. For anyone who doesn’t know the play, Shakespeare weaves together three storylines in Elizabethan style: the Athenian nob

Robert Indiana’s LOVE, one of the most recognizable works of 20th-century American art, is set to be part of The Huntington’s permanent collection later this year. Originally created as a drawing in 1964, LOVE turned the everyday word into an iconic symbol. Today, there are more than 50 LOVE sculptures installed worldwide. “We are deeply grateful to Terri and Jerry Kohl for their generosity in making this acquisition possible,” said Karen R. Lawrence, president of The Huntington. “Jerry b

Many know that two CCE research groups are moving from Caltech to CU Boulder. This column will be a way that I keep the Caltech students (myself included) a part of the Caltech community as we finish our PhDs in Colorado. I recently went to Boulder, CO with my best friend Maria to explore the area and check out apartments. Note to the reader: I wrote this article like a scientist with figures called out in the text. Don’t hate me! Haha! My journey began with a flight from Long Beach Airport

Hello Tech readers! Time for another round of reviews where I explore the San Gabriel Valley food scene with the 2025 MySGV Food Passport. There remains only a few places in Pasadena still to explore: Birria Master, Edwin Mills, O’Seyo Shabu Shabu, All India Café, and Star Leaf. Birria Master’s hours are 5:30 PM to 11 PM, so its been a tricky place to find time for as the early bird I am! Edwin Mills is a place I tried to go on Valentine’s Day, and then again with Kayane another day, but we got

NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off California on April 10 at 5:07 p.m. PDT, concluding a nearly 10-day lunar mission. Recovery teams from NASA, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Air Force then begin bringing the crew and capsule aboard the USS John P. Murtha. (Photo: Bill Ingalls/NASA) NASA’s Artemis II mission [concl

That soothing strip Of human mind. That whisper of echoes Of from beyond. That rose that rotates Of red petals. That emergence Of light from dark. That asymptote Of familiar tones. That lovely boundary Ushering forth. That special you In your gaze and hues. Fathomed to Through and true. Under the sun, the moon, The spring and its dews.

The group in front of the Capitol. This article was written by members of Science and Engineering Policy at Caltech (SEPAC). Right now, most of us are tunnel-visioned on solving a frontier scientific problem. However, the moment you glance up from your microscope, algorithm, or chalkboard, you realize that this myopic luxury is sustained by a delicate flow of federal funding, age

It’s springtime, with blooms everywhere, and who wouldn’t appreciate a pair of colorful wings dancing in front of their eyes? In this issue, your avian specialist takes a small detour and presents some butterfly species on campus. While I haven’t surveyed the area thoroughly, there is a surprisingly rich collection of butterflies here, thanks to the variety of exotic flowers and plants. Once you start paying attention, the air itself feels a little more animated. Here are some that I have seen:

Lynn Booth and Kent Kresa stand before the newly dedicated aerospace building. Their $50 million gift in late 2025 established the Lynn Booth and Kent Kresa Department of Aerospace. (Photo: Chris Flynn/Caltech News) Caltech formally dedicated the Lynn Booth and Kent Kresa Department of Aeros

When I think back on my time in Washington, D.C., for the 2026 CASE Workshop, what returns to me first is not a talking point, or a statistic, or even a room. It is motion. It is the feeling of walking being surrounded by students from across the country who had come for the same reason: to understand how science survives in public life. And later, it is the feeling of riding a scooter

Cover art for Blood Ivory: The Massacre of the African Elephant by Robin Brown (with John Hanks). (Photo: The History Press) In my three years at Caltech, I have learned one undeniable truth: winter terms are the hardest. If you aren’t grinding through core requirements, you’re battling the occasional rains and winds. If not the weather, then some burning bush (literal and met

Art from the CDS Midnight Madness Jazz Club. (Photo: Miguel Campos) We hope your first week of the spring term was a success! As we settle into the rhythm of the new term, Housing and Dining Services are back with our collaborative column in the Tech. We are excited to keep you updated on housing initiatives and the latest culinary experiences we’re cooking up to support our community

Here is a simple test of conscious living: ask a friend whether they’ve ever noticed the loud cries in the sky at sunrise and sunset. If they have no idea what you are talking about, they are missing a surprising amount of life. Give them a concerned look and point them to this article. It still shocks me that some Caltech students, after years in Pasadena, have never paid attention to these jet-engine-decibel calls. Others have noticed them, but wrongly blamed the crows. Please, just look up!

By the time the doors opened at Scott Brown Gym on March 10, the students of Caltech’s ME 72 capstone course had already spent months living inside the problem. For roughly 15 weeks, teams of mechanical and civil engineering undergraduates had designed, machined, wired, coded, tested, broken, repaired, and rebuilt robots for one public reckoning: the 41st Annual ME 72 Engineering Design Competition. When the machines finally rolled onto the floor, the question was no longer whether the ideas wer

NASA’s Artemis II Space Launch System lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Wednesday, April 1. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Just days after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center at 6:35 p.m. EDT on April 1, Artemis II has reestablished a capability absent since Apollo 17: human transit beyond Earth orbit. The mission represents the first crewed validation of a

Lloyd brought a touch of the surreal to Interhouse this year with an Alice in Wonderland-themed Lloyderhouse — equal parts whimsical and unhinged in the best way. Walls came alive with Carollian iconography, from a looming Red Queen to playing cards and warped storybook motifs, while a vivid multicolored Cheshire Cat grinned beside the DJ booth, flickering in and out of view under the lights. And, of course, the pole returned: one of Lloyd’s most storied traditions. This year, dancers were of

Continuing what we discussed in the previous article (“Can we detect an Earth-like-Exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like-Star for signs of life?,” The California Tech, November 12, 2024), we have published a new study in Nature Astronomy and was selected for the March cover issue of that journal. This study demonstrates the feasibil

Hello Tech readers! Time for the third round of reviews where I explore the San Gabriel Valley food scene with the 2025 MySGV Food Passport. This passport is valid from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, so I have been trying to explore as many restaurants as I can in 2026! For this issue, I grabbed dinner with my Caltech bestie, Kayane, and then we went for ice cream. Baja Cali Passport descripti

When I went to Hawaiʻi with the Caltech Y, I thought I was signing up for a meaningful spring break experience, a chance to see beautiful places, learn something new, and meet people. What I did not expect was that Hawaiʻi would touch a wound in me I had carried for years — one I had almost stopped trying to name. I have spent so much of my life feeling like I stood slightly outside of where I was supposed to belong. As if everyone else had roots they could trace, while I was still left asking

A constitutional crisis unfolded last week in Lloyd after residents of Purple and Kaos alleys announced their intention to secede and establish an independent state, the “Republic of Nugget.” The declaration came on March 31, when former President Isabella announced on behalf of the Purple and Kaos alleys that, “in the absence of our fearless leader” (current President Shan is off-campus this term), they had “elected to secede from Lloyd House in order to form our own independent state, the Rep

Carl Grillmair, an astronomer at Caltech’s IPAC science and data center for astronomy and planetary science, died on February 16. He was 67. His death has shaken the Caltech community, where colleagues remember as both a creative scientist and a foundational member of IPAC’s research programs. Grillmair spent nearly three decades at Caltech after joining IPAC in 1997. Over the cour

An interview with Pedro Neves, a visiting researcher from JPL. When I first met Pedro Neves, a visiting researcher from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it was at a Watson Lecture in October 2025. Our shared native language, Portuguese, provided an immediate shorthand, but the conversation quickly moved to the mechanics of the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point. Neves was describing a plan to stabilize the global climate by installing a microscopic sunshade 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. Pedro

(Photos: Shanna Xiao) On the night of February 21, Dabney Hovse welcomed students across campus for its Lunar New Year-themed Interhovse celebration. The courtyard centerpiece was a striking red dome topped with gold, glowing from within with shifting colored lights that illuminated the space throughout the night. Inside what is otherwise Dabney’s dining hall, visitors explored a maze

In 1915, Emilie Esther Scheyer came across The Hunchback (1911) by artist Alexei Jawlensky in Lausanne, Switzerland. The painting was so impactful that she was determined to meet Jawlensky, setting the course for her life and career, as well as the development of modern art in California. Dear Little Friend: Impressions of Galka Scheyer opened at the Norton Simon Museum last month. Organized by Curator Gloria Williams Sander, the exhibition focuses on Scheyer’s relationships with artists an

(Photo: Getty Images) On March 4, the Senate Commerce Committee voted to advance the bipartisan NASA Authorization Act of 2026, authorizing a $24.7 billion budget for this fiscal year, extending operations for the International Space Station through 2032, and — for the first time — backing plans for a permanent crewed presence on the Moon. “This bipartisan legislation sets an ambit

I attempted to go to Edwin Mills (one of the places in the SGV Food Passport) on Valentine’s Day, but sadly we needed a reservation to try it out. Oops! So more delicious restaurants in the SGV Food Passport will be explored and reviewed next term. In the meantime, I was able to try out three other Pasadena restaurants and will review them here! Plate 38 _Plate 38 hosts acoustic live music night

Did you know that hummingbirds are a family of birds found exclusively in the Western Hemisphere (here chants the Bad Bunny version listing all American countries)? When I first arrived at Caltech, I found these hovering drones such a blessed sight. People here love hummingbirds — proved by the abundance of nectar feeders around the graduate student housing and in the front yards of many fancy Pasadena homes. A hummingbird feeder might be your easiest connection to nature! And here is a dedicate

Actually Using This Stuff (Philosophy as Practice, Not Just Theory) Okay, so I’ve thrown a lot of philosophy at you. But here’s the thing: this isn’t meant to be intellectual trivia for impressing people at parties. The ancient Greeks called philosophy a “way of life” — not an academic subject, but a set of practices for living well. The point isn’t to memorize quotes. It’s to i

(Photos: Kensuke Shimojo and Camilla Fezzi) Venerable House hosted its annual Interhouse party on the night of February 28, continuing into the early morning hours of March 1, transforming the Venerable Courtyard into a Spider-Verse-inspired celebration. After roughly eight weeks of preparation, organizers unveiled an elaborately decorated courtyard complete with themed artwork and

Accept your existence like you accept the Caltech squirrels. (Credit: Jieyu Zheng) Last month the Caltech community suffered the tragic loss of Parker Thompson. I did not personally know Thompson, but it warms my heart to see the many articles and photos on The California Tech dedicated to his memory. Mental health is a tremendous challenge in intense academic environments like Ca

All photos courtesy of Damian R. Wilson. Thanks to the Interhouse Committee, Caltech’s Pi Day tradition rose again this year — a very Caltech study break for a very Caltech finals season. The well-rounded celebration happened right on schedule at 1:59 a.m. on March 14, where night-owl pi(e) enthusiasts converged in the Ricketts-Fleming courtyard for an event that was, by all measures,

As many of us know, s’more year fall and winter terms are absolute killers. Unfortunately, I was also a victim of this, which is why instead of my usual periodic updates throughout the winter athletic season, I am bringing to you all a complete season recap in a nutshell! Swim and Dive _Caltech S&D celebr

Stop Trying to Convert Climate Deniers: A Psychologist’s Guide to Actually Making a Difference Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Talk to People Who Already Care When you see an event titled “Communicating The Climate Crisis,” you might expect another earnest lecture about melting ice caps accompanied by guilt-inducing polar bear photos. But Wändi Bruine de Bruin — Provost Professor of Public Policy, Psychology and Behavioral Science at USC — had a different message for the Student

All names and identifying details in this narrative have been altered to protect privacy. The scenes represent composite experiences and reflections from critical care shadowing, not specific individuals or cases. Dialogue is paraphrased and not verbatim. 7:09 PM. The Walk Home. The heat hits me like a wall when I step outside. The medical center is still busy, but I feel like I’m moving through a different dimension than everyone else. The people walking past me are thinking about dinner, a

2026-2027 Churchill Scholar: Akshar Ramkumar. (Photo: Sharon W. Tran) Fourth-year mathematics undergraduate Akshar Ramkumar has been selected as one of 16 recipients of the Churchill Scholarship, which provides funding for a one-year master’s degree at the University of Cambridge. At Caltech, Ramkumar has conducted research in quantum computation and its intersection with theoreti

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is the third entry in the franchise, following Tomodachi Collection (2009) and Tomodachi Life (2013). (Image: Nintendo) Tomodachi Life was released in Japan in 2013. A year later, it hit Western markets a month a

Finally, a column about the turtles! The turtles have been an integral part of the Caltech community, and much of this connection is made by the enthusiastic Caltech students themselves. This column collects information and legends about the turtles from Hannah Way, the current president of the Caltech Turtle Club. Through my interview with Hannah, I learned many surprising and fun facts about Caltech turtles. I hope you, the readers, will learn something new from this article as well. The Calt

Due to the sensitivity of the surrounding topic, the student writer requested their work be published anonymously. A lot can happen in one minute. Sixty little seconds. An infinite number of moments. It only takes a moment for everything to change, not just for your life, but the lives of the people around you too. It’s interesting how things happen, the way we come out with these nice things we normally wouldn’t do. People say things they normally wouldn’t say. People value other people more

Parker Thompson, a second-year undergraduate studying applied and computational mathematics, Secretary of ASCIT, and a peer advocate, passed away on February 3, 2026. He was 19. Thompson arrived at Caltech in fall 2024 as a QuestBridge Scholar and participant in the First-Year Success Research Institute. In his application to the Institute, one recommender called him “a once-in-a-lif

What would happen if all the trash humans have dumped into the ocean rained back onto land? The War Between the Land and the Sea considers what would happen if an underwater species suddenly revealed itself, fed up with the damage humans have inflicted on them through pollution and other actions at sea. The show is a spinoff in the Doctor Who universe, but viewers don’t need to know much to follow along beyond a few minor references to “The Doctor” interspersed throughout the show. The firs

The southern Alberta sky — the kind some people are desperate to fight for. (Photo: Flickr) Thanks to a certain U.S. president, the new year has seen a curiously Canadian topic readmitted to the news cycle: Alberta separatism. A t

Time to review a few more restaurants featured in the 2026 SGV Food Passport! Last issue, I reviewed Lee’s Hoagie House and Paris Baguette. This time, I have explored two other places featured in the passport. Photo cred: Victoria Davis Taco Libre Passport description: “Teddy Bedjakian brings bold flavors to Old Pasadena with Taco Libre, offering a modern twist on tacos in a lively alley setting

“I’m going on an adventure,” shouts Bilbo Baggins in the first moments of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, after accepting Gandalf’s request to join the dwarves. A huge Hobbit fan, I’d never given the line much thought. It was simply part of the script. It couldn’t rival Smaug’s chilling soliloquy on the mountain of gold, or Bilbo’s emotional farewell after the Battle of the Five Armies. It couldn’t have been the most essential line … until it was. I stepped into a chilly Auckland from a pr

The sixth Grand Theft Auto game has been highly anticipated ever since it was announced in 2023, even winning the Most Anticipated Game at The Game Awards in 2025. It’s set to be published by Rockstar Games on Nov. 19, 2026 and is projected to earn hundreds of millions of dollars. It will undoubtedly be the most anticipated game release of the year. You shouldn’t buy it. The projected $80 price tag is egregious enough, with some rumors claiming that it will even be $100. More importantly, you

On February 12, CDS celebrated Black History Month in Browne Dining Hall with a wide-ranging menu featuring soyrizo mac ‘n’ cheese, chicken and sausage gumbo (with a tofu option), BBQ jackfruit riblets, fried okra, jerk chicken and yams, shrimp grits (or tofu), chicken and waffles (with a vegetarian option), banana pudding, and biscuits. Themed décor added to the celebratory atmosphere. (Photos: Kensuke Shimojo, Damian R. Wilson) ![](https://xguzskbxiptvhbyggkpl.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/p

From Parker’s candlelight vigil. (Photo: Iris A. Lubashev) yours is the death that cheapens all words and as i write this i scan each one not for beauty but for adequacy not for music but for weight i test them in the mouth of the sentence i press them against the fact of you gone and each one gives slightly under pressure as if language were made of softer materials than we had b

Join us on Tuesday, March 3rd for an unforgettable night at the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, brought to you by the Caltech Alpine Club! It’ll be a fun night of inspiring and exhilarating outdoor adventure films. We’re also hosting a pre-show reception with free food and local outdoor adventure organizations and giving away incredible prizes donated by local sponsors at our raffle. All proceeds from ticket revenue supports the Alpine Club’s mission to make outdoor adventure accessibl

Presidents Rosenbaum and Jayawardhana, Provost Tirrell, and members of the Caltech Faculty, For over a century, the California Institute of Technology and the community of Pasadena have grown side by side. We are a city that takes immense pride and joy in your mission and success. We are your neighbors, your alumni, your faculty, and your students. We write to you today as Building a Better Pasadena — a coalition of hundreds of residents and advocates — because we believe that a single project

Disclaimer: This is satire. If you feel the need to send a malicious email to anyone after reading this, consider taking a walk by the Turtle Pond instead. Also, this isn’t a dig at our Chief Student Affairs Officer, who’s been genuinely engaged with students in the six months he’s been here. It applies only to the people undergrads already know it applies to. Changes to make the campus safer and more inclusive have been profoundly successful in the past several years. We have come a long way

All names and identifying details in this narrative have been altered to protect privacy. The scenes represent composite experiences and reflections from critical care shadowing, not specific individuals or cases. Dialogue is paraphrased and not verbatim. The fluorescent lights in intensive care units never sleep. Neither, it seems, do I anymore — not really. Not since I began shadowing in critical care, where the air itself feels heavier, saturated with the mechanical rhythm of ventilators br

This year’s Super Bowl kicked off on Sunday, February 8th, between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. Over 100 million people watch the Super Bowl every year, which creates a fierce competition between companies to create the best ads they can for the most effective viewer impression. The most heartwarming ad — rated USA Today’s #1 of Super Bowl 2026 — was Budweiser’s depiction of the relationship over time between a Clydesdale foal and an eagle chick. These animals are closely

Shlain presented as part of a speaker series for the Caltech Longevity Club, which is led by Andrea Olsen (CNS/BEM ‘27). Other club leaders include William Wang (BS ‘29) as Vice President and Team Members Mahi Ravi (ChemE ‘26, Lloyd) and João Pedro Bra Cardoso Ferreira Bastos (CS ‘26, Blacker). (Photo: Caltech Longevity Club) Dr. Jordan Shlain, who presented to the Caltech Longevity

There is a chill passing through Caltech. Over the past year, the foundations of U.S. education, research, and democracy have been systematically targeted by the Trump administration. Hostile rhetoric against racial minorities, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community has escalated into ICE kidnappings, withdrawal from international collaborations, bans on federal programs promoting “diversity, equity, and inclusion” and more. Within the education and research community, the fallout has been immedi

Oh gentle wind, Tell me so. From how far, How you have come to know. Of the sun and the moon, And the chirpings. The lily on ponds, Towing hopes from beyond. Stay if you may, And be the breeze. Of high hopes, And gentle dreams.

In recent years, U.S. journalists have faced severe consequences — including revoked citizenship, visa cancellations, detention, and deportation — for even neutral reporting on politically sensitive issues. Given these realities, we believe protecting the anonymity of contributing international students is a necessary precaution to ensure their safety and ability to continue their academic and professional work. In January 2011, several academics attended the “Mindshift Conference,” organized

A particular kind of love emerges when choice is suddenly revoked. Not violently, as if someone stormed in and took your options away, but politely — through circumstance. Through geography. Through an institution that

Tools of Discovery: From Blenders to CRISPR “What do a Waring blender, a wooden toothpick, and CRISPR have in common?” This was the question that Prof. Dianne Newman asked during the first lecture in Microbial Genetics. Initially, I was very confused about this qu

I am currently sitting in front of my computer, definitely too late considering that I have to wake up at 6…and it is already AM, staring at a problem set that I intuitively understand is unsolvable, much like the broader equation of my life. There is a specific kind of silence that settles over Pasadena in the early morning. It is heavy, dense with the unvoiced anxieties of a thousand overachievers wondering if they are frauds. I feel this silence not just around me, but inside me. It echoes a

Hello Tech readers! This is my first round of reviews as I explore the San Gabriel Valley food scene with the 2025 MySGV Food Passport. This passport is valid from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026, so I will spend the first half of 2026 exploring as many restaurants and bakeries featured here that I can! Lee’s Hoagie House Passport description: “Shahan Der Ohannesian

It has come to our attention that there is wrong information going around about Mailbox assignments. Here are the rules: Mailboxes are assigned at check-in and you keep them while you are an active student. If you withdraw for whatever reason the box is pulled and re-assigned. It is not held. Any correspondence/packages that come in with your old MSC is returned. Mailboxes should be checked daily. In addition, Alice would like to stress that packages must be picked up ASAP.

The Paradox: Stop Chasing Happiness Here’s something that’s going to blow your mind: you can’t become happy by chasing happiness. It’s like trying to fall asleep by trying really hard to fall asleep — the trying IS the problem. Philosophers call this “the paradox of hedonism,” and John Stuart Mill learned it the hard way. Mill was this child genius who was educated to be the p

WINTER TERM GREETINGS FROM HOUSING AND DINING SERVICES Welcome to the first installment of our new collaborative column from Housing and Dining Services! While the term is already in full swing, we wanted to take a moment to officially welcome everyone back to campus. As part of the Student Affairs team, we are excited to launch this space in the Tech to keep you connected with the community, whether that means updates on life in the houses or the latest culinary experiences we’re cooki

The Paradox: Stop Chasing Happiness Here’s something that’s going to blow your mind: you can’t become happy by chasing happiness. It’s like trying to fall asleep by trying really hard to fall asleep — the trying IS the problem. Philosophers call this “the paradox of hedonism,” and John Stuart Mill learned it the hard way. Mill was this child genius who was educated to be the perfect rational h

Ricketts Hovse hosted a Norse-themed interhouse party Saturday night, transforming the space with decorated columns, runic wall designs, and DJ booth styled in Ricketts’ signature gothic aesthetic. The theme was introduced through a written narrative emailed to the student body, drawing on Norse mythology and framing the event as a journey from Múspellsheimr and Hel to Asgard and Valhalla. Stylized runes and signatures reinforced the visual motif. Inside, low lighting and backlit runic artwork

My name is Areeg Al-Dayni, and I am a rising sophomore majoring in bioengineering. I was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and lived in Bolu, Turkey for two years before eventually settling in Fort Worth, Texas. From an early age, my life across cultures taught me that the world is vast, diverse, and deeply interconnected. This upbringing sparked my passion for languages and global learning, making studying abroad an essential part of my college journey. That passion came to life through the Bishop Fellow

This was the question that Prof. Dianne Newman asked during the first lecture in Microbial Genetics. Initially, I was very confused about this question because they seem to be used in completely different scenarios. However, soon I started to see what she meant. Strikingly, each has served as a key tool in major scientific advances. Scientists often exploit everyday objects – or simple biological systems – to probe deep questions. Each of these examples highlights how far we can go with very lit

I was somewhere on the edge of that “museum” when the spam musubi began to take hold. It hit like contraband adrenaline, that sugar-slick rice and salt-fat meat. The unearthly intimacy of plastic wrap torn too fast. And suddenly there was a terrible roar, neural-networked boundaries announcing themselves and vanishing at once in the very same neoned bang: how I am tortured for my hauteur, my gall, as a

In 2005, the first “Ace Attorney” game reached Western audiences on the Nintendo DS. Despite Capcom’s hesitation to release it globally, it was a success. The visual novel franchise grew beyond simple courtroom drama into a phenomenon. The story centers on new defense attorney Phoenix Wright and his countless wrongfully accused clients. As he navigates a cast of wacky and often suspicious characters, it becomes clear that the combination of complicated murders and unique personalities has given

On Wednesday evening, the Watson Lecture opened not with fire but with air. Professor François Tissot began by recalling a Los Angeles where smog once pressed so thick against the city that children were excused from school and pedestrians wore gas masks on Hollyw

The Caltech Longevity Club is hosting a meeting with the CEO and founder of the largest concierge clinic in the U.S., Private Medical. Meet Dr. Jordan Shlain and discuss the future of medicine, longevity and health tech. If you… Are interested in entrepreneurship and building companies Want to optimize your health for performance and sport Are interested in a career in health, med-tech, AI Wish to connect with a leading tech innovator and decision maker in the country Sign

I met Kenny a few months ago, shortly after I arrived at Caltech. He was the first person to welcome me to the Observational Cosmology group. When he started mentoring me, I had not yet committed to the group, so I expected him to give me some readings and maybe meet with me weekly. Instead, he met with me every day to show me how the cryostat’s cooldown cycle worke

In March 2021, a digital collage file by the artist Beeple sold for an astonishing $69 million at Christie’s auction. The buyer of this NFT (non-fungible token) didn’t receive a physical object or exclusive rights to the art – essentially, they paid for a certificate of ownership recorded on a blockchain. In practical terms, what they bought has no intrinsic use: it’s a JPEG image anyone can copy. As one tech reporter put it, NFT buyers are often “just buying bragging rights and an ass

I’m Not That Girl (The Anthem I Didn’t Want) “Don’t dream too far / Don’t lose sight of who you are / Don’t remember that rush of joy / He could be that boy / I’m not that girl” I had to excuse myself to the bathroom after this one. Just sat there in the stall crying, trying to be quiet. It felt embarrassing, but also, I couldn’t stop because it felt like something inside me was finally breaking open. It’s not even about the boy. I mean, it is, but it’s bigger than that. It’s about being t

Last term, Caltech cosplayed as Stanford for a week. Fortunately (or unfortunately), it was not a prank, but instead a large filming operation for the upcoming film “The Love Hypothesis,” an adaptation of Ali Hazelwood’s novel of the same name. A sizable film crew worked at multiple locations across campus, capturing scenes in Kerckhoff, on Bechtel Mall, and most noticeably, around Caltech Hall Pond. Many students (your author included) wondered why filming occurred here instead of at Stanford.

Happy New Year to the loyal readers of my wildlife column! With ample winter rain and a lower likelihood of wildfires this year, it feels fitting to begin the term by turning our attention to aquatic animals and the ecosystems they inhabit. Although Southern California is generally dry, humans have long built artificial water systems to satisfy their aesthetic desires. Caltech is no exception. The campus hosts several iconic water features: the turtle ponds in Throop Memorial Garden, the Caltec

Disclaimer: This is satire. Mostly. Let’s talk about the familiar experience of falling for someone on a campus so small that it may, in fact, be a social experiment. The experimental design: one insulated campus the size of a city block, two gossip cycles and maybe three eligible romantic candidates. Each has disqualifying traits, yet no one’s left to take their place. You find yourself obsessing over someone, not because they’re especially attractive or even vaguely capable of emotional de

The Language of Mountains The sound is unmistakable. Click-clack. Click-clack. Hard plastic striking frozen asphalt. It is the music of 5:00 AM, played out in the dark parking lots of the Dolomites. I was three years old when I first learned the rhythm of it, my small, gloved hand lost inside my father’s palm. The air didn’t just smell like winter; it smelled of his black coffee steaming from a silver thermos and the sharp, metallic scent of snow guns working through the night. We did

Happy New Year, Tech readers! Time to review the final three coffee shops featured in the 2025 Pasadena Coffee Passport! Two issues ago, I reviewed Highlight Coffee, Coffee & Plants, and Jameson Brown Coffee Roasters. This time, I have explored the last three coffee shops of the fourteen shops in the passport! Home Brewed Bar Pa

This past summer I was fortunate enough to have been awarded a San Pietro travel prize. This enabled me to travel to Germany, Austria and Switzerland – countries I’ve wanted to travel to ever since I took my first high school German class seven years ago. I visited Berlin, Nuremberg, Munich, Innsbruck, St. Moritz and Zurich – an assortment of locations that were chosen to help me experience the culture of those three countries while also fulfilling personal interests. These included visiting the

Why Running From Pain Makes Everything Worse It sounds counterintuitive, but trying to avoid all suffering can make you more miserable. If your life is organized around avoiding discomfort—skipping hard classes, avoiding difficult conversations, numbing out with Netflix and social media—it’s not working, is it? You’re not happier. You’re just… numb. Beneath

I’m sitting here three days later, and I still can’t get it out of my head. The movie, I mean. Wicked. I went because everyone was going and I needed a break from studying for finals and maybe because I was curious about all the hype but I wasn’t expecting… this. I wasn’t expecting to leave the theater feeling like someone had reached into my chest and rearranged everything. I can’t quite explain it properly. It’s like when you’re looking at yourself in a mirror and suddenly see something you’v

The November air was 50 degrees when we lined up outside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. I adjusted my layers—comfortable but warm, as the email instructed—and felt my heart racing. It had been so long since I’d heard Italian sung like this. I’m from Verona. Yes, that Verona—Romeo and Juliet’s city, but more importantly to me, the city of opera. The Verona Arena has been the world’s largest open-air opera venue since 1913, hosting performances under the stars in an ancient Roman amphitheater for

Many talented artists have existed throughout history; these people—Van Gogh, Da Vinci, DeVito, etc. —have a special connection to their craft, every creation advancing the world of art one stroke at a time. Presently, people can only observe their works in museums and exhibits, but never witness their creation. However, as I learned this summer, these masters of art still walk among us. Hidden Master It’s a hot Singapore day ( 91.4°F, 80% humidity) and I came across a reel about an elde

On Sunday, Nov. 9, Caltech hosted its inaugural campus bird walk with the Pasadena Audubon Society (PAS), a local nonprofit dedicated to birding and bird conservation. Although birding on campus has long been a cherished tradition—including the weekly bird walks led by Dr. Alan C. Cummings since 1986 (more on that in a future issue)—this was the first time the event was organized as an official PAS field trip, opening Caltech’s habitats to many local birders beyond the campus community. The tri

Gold has captivated humanity for millennia. In 1848, the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in the Sierra Nevada foothills initiated one of the largest migrations in U.S. history and left a lasting impact on the environment. In artistic expression, gold also plays an important role. Beyond mines and the economy, what different stories does gold tell when encountered in art? When Associate Curator Maggie Bell and Assistant Curator Lakshika Senarath Gamage began combing through the gold objects o

From the gridiron to the front office, Terrance “Terry” Tumey’s career spans roles as a college football player and coach, an athletic director in Division I, II, and III institutions, and an executive at the San Francisco 49ers. He earne

Oscar Wilde subtitled The Importance of Being Earnest “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People,” but the Theater Arts at Caltech (TACIT) cast made clear in their recent productio

I Don’t Know How to Explain What Wicked Did to Me I’m sitting here three days later, and I still can’t get it out of my head. The movie, I mean. Wicked. I went because everyone was going and I needed a break from studying for finals and maybe because I was curious about all the hype but I wasn’t expecting… this. I wasn’t expecting to leave the theater feeling like someone had reached into my chest and rearranged everything. I can’t quite explain it properly. It’s like when you’re loo

When suggesting games to friends, I’ll often get a response along the lines of “Oh, I’m not good at games.” This statement can be a bit confusing in that it is so general. What does it mean to be “good at games?” There are definitely types of games one might not be good at, for example I suck at shooters, but I find it hard to believe that one can be bad at all games. I think it comes from a common misconception of video games among non-gamers that all video games are based around combat or some

Eudaimonia: Actually Building a Life Worth Living Okay, so if happiness isn’t the next achievement or perfect Instagram moment, what is it? Enter Aristotle, who’s honestly the GOAT when it comes to this stuff. He had this word—eudaimonia—that gets translated as “happiness” but really means something closer to “flourishing” or “living well.” Think of it

One afternoon, a father gave his young son an antibiotic for a routine throat infection—and watched in astonishment as the boy’s autism symptoms seemed to ease. The child grew more social and engaged, almost as if a fog lifted. This wasn’t a miracle cure or a coincidence, scientists now believe. Instead, it may have been an unintended tweak to the gut microbiome–the trillions of microbes living in our digestive tract. Once seen as passive passengers, these gut microbes are emerging as quiet cond

Page Hovse kicked off Interhouse season with a full-throttle throwback to the year 2000—back when the world braced for computer doom and dial-up tone

Time to review three more coffee shops featured in the 2025 Pasadena Coffee Passport! Last issue, I reviewed Mandarin Coffee Stand, the Boy & the Bear, and Lavender & Honey. This time, I have explored another three coffee shops of the fourteen shops in the passport. Highlight Coffee Passport description: “Nestled just above t

Richard Kipling, former director of the Los Angeles Times’ Minority Editorial Training Program (Metpro), advocate for diversity in the newsroom, and longstanding advisor of The California Tech, passed away on October 27 following a str

![Photos from the pre-year field trip. Clockwise from top left: Prof. Paul Asimow and company—TA Yuri Tamama riding shotgun—on the road to the Coso geothermal plant, students stand in front of the Earthquake Fault on Mammoth Mountain, a

November 16th, 2025 | 10pm – 11pm Hameetman Conference Room ASCIT Members Present: Ashlyn, Angie, Elisa, Hannah, Bis, Ivy, Parker IHC Members Present: Isabella, Robert, Dillan, Bram, Joe, Neev, Alanna, Ella, Isara Please reference IHC Minutes for IHC reports Joint IHC and ASCIT Concerns Ashlyn Roice CRC Page Social Probation: The intersection between ASCIT and IHC this meeting is due to the CRC changes. Ashlyn had a meeting with Grace Otos, CRC Chair, a

Senior Director for Campus Activities and Alumni Engagement, Tom Mannion, has been a fixture of Caltech life since 1993. His name is synonymous with many of the Institute’s most cherished traditions: House dinners, Cooking 101, the Olive Harvest, and the vibrancy of student life. To learn more ab

They call it the American Dream, but no one talks about the weight it places on your shoulders. Everyone speaks of excitement, achievement, determination. Yet no one mentions the moment you close the door at night and realize that what remains is not satisfaction, but a kind of burning silence—foreign and heavy. Sometimes it’s a metallic quiet, like the laboratory I’ve just left; other times it’s the sound of the wind moving through the trees on campus—gentle, but constant, always distant. Ever

Written with love and wisdom gained through years of seeking… and I am keeping doing this Hey there, younger teenager, I know you’re probably sitting in your dorm room right now, stressed about midterms, wondering if you picked the right major, scrolling through Instagram and feeling like everyone else is happy and has their life figured out except you. Spoiler alert: they don’t. But more importantly, that anxious knot in your stomach—that constant feeling that happiness is just around the c

I sat in Beckman Auditorium last night, November 3rd, my iPad open, my pen ready. Around me, students whispered excitedly. Faculty members settled into their seats. The air felt heavy with anticipation—that particular Caltech energy when something important is about to happen. Bill Gates was coming. I had been looking forward to this for weeks. Not because I’m obsessed with billionaires or tech giant

The ‘60s were a wild time. Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, and members of the counterculture movement were defying traditional social norms. It was an age of innovation, reform, and progress, and Caltech undergraduates had t

By the time this comes out it will almost certainly be outdated, but here is the list and my initial impressions. Mortal Shell II (2026) — 6/10 Very cool trailer. While it seems like a Dark Souls game in terms of aesthetic, with grotesque and twisted beings in a dark world, it is not a FromSoftware title. The monster and character designs truly speak to something sinister in the world, but the included combat clips are much more gorey than you would see in Soulslike gameplay. Whi

Correction of the previous issue “Caltech Wildlife: A Welcome Guide”: The caption for the first photo “a mysterious snapping turtle” should actually be “a razor-backed musk turtle.” Many thanks to Hannah Way, the current president of the Caltech turtle club, for pointing that out. According to Hannah, “we have two of these turtles in the pond. They can be identified by their tall and ridged shell with distinc

If you don’t know yet, Caltech’s sex discrimination policy includes a specific clause (Article 15.5) prohibiting any relationship between employees—meaning faculty, postdocs, and staff—and undergraduate students. It also advises caution and professionalism in any relationship where a power imbalance exists. This is where it becomes truly damaging—you start to believe it’s your fault. E

Today, with honor and great enthusiasm, we share the winners of the 2025 Nobel Prizes, announced between October 6 and 13 in Oslo, Norway, and Stockholm, Sweden. The prize is divided into six categories: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economics. Nobel Prize in Physics 2025 The winners are John Clarke, born in 1942 in Cambridge, UK. PhD 1968 from the University of Cambridge, UK. Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. **Michel H. D

How can clay from the Appalachian Mountains, Kilkenny stone from Ireland, and porcelain made in the Song Dynasty come together cohesively? In “the eight directions of the wind” at The Huntington, lauded author and artist Edmund de Waal explores how art made from these materials, among many pieces of porcelain and poetry, connects histories across borders and through time. Edmund de Waal was born in Nottingham, England, in 1964, and is the son of the former Dean of Canterbury, Victor de Waal. At

Dear reader, The California Tech is at once delighted and horrified to announce that we have, as of October 2nd of this year, been cited in another publication. Namely, by the National Association of Scholars (NAS), a conservative 501©(3) founded in 1987 for the preservation of “Western intellectual heritage.” In other words, we happened to wind up in an alt-right think piece that, while using an LLM to make its

Content warning: This article contains brief mention of suicide. A small layout hiccup in our last issue left Joseph Greenwell captioned incorrectly, featuring Betsy Mitchell’s instead of his own. (Greenwell/Mitchell’s inscribed purp

Since our last column, Caltech Athletics has continued to take great strides in the fall sports seasons! It’s almost the home stretch for many of these sports, so let’s catch up on the past couple weeks of updates: Cross Country The XC team has been competing quite a bit in the previous weeks, with the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational and the UCR Highlander Invite. At the PP Invitational, our men’s team had a standout performance by Stephen Goeringher (‘28) with a 39th finish out of over 200 comp

The second floor of Kerckhoff had an unusual stillness that evening. People trickled into the small library room for the Science and Faith Examined (SAFE) talk, uncertain yet curious. I sat near the back, notebook open, listening to Tara—a physics PhD student and president of GCF—unfold her reflections on quantum field theory and the Bible. The hum of conversation faded as she spoke about particles, fields, and the hidden architecture of creation. Her words carried not only the weight of scienti

OpenAI recently launched their latest image and video generation model, Sora 2, a tool enabling the production of images and video from a text prompt. The initial Sora model debuted in February 2024, and had the capability to generate short clips without any sound. The output was limited to a few seconds in length, or up to 20 seconds for the highest paid subscription. While the earliest models did not produce very high quality clips, the model technology has advanced quickly. At this point, it

Time to review another four coffee shops featured in the 2025 Pasadena Coffee Passport! Last issue, I reviewed Rosebud Coffee, Copa Vida, Republik Coffee, and Jones Coffee Roasters. Since then, I have gone to another four coffee shops of the fourteen shops in the passport. Mandarin Coffee Stand Passport description: “This is P

As Caltech researchers, there is perhaps nothing so guarded as data. We scrutinize with excessive detail our data collection methods, data analysis methods, false-positive and false negative rates, and possible sources of bias to ensure that our interpretation of said data is trustworthy. But even before that…we make sure the data is there. So, reading Jordan Marie-Smith’s NPR article, “USDA cancels survey tracking how many Americans struggle to get enough food,” felt like a punch in th

What are your histories at Caltech? Chris: So I was brought on as the Student Affairs case manager, and when I started and the scope of my role was specifically case management for students of concern. Over the course of the last two years, that’s shifted and developed into my role now as the Director of the Center, where I continue to provide leadership to the CARE team, and also develop Accessibility Services while casting a vision for the future of student support at Caltech. Jocelyn:

October 19th, 2025 | 2pm – 4pm Members Present: Ashlyn, Angie, Elisa, Hannah, Bis, Ivy, Parker President’s Report (Ashlyn) External Funding Things are looking difficult with loss of external funding, but we will get through it. Title IX Increase in poor Title IX sentiment among the student body. Spoke with Lindsey. Students do not know how Title IX works, but they want to know. They deserve opportunities to engage with the Title IX office directly. Ashlyn wants

On October 13th, JPL announced that it will lay off roughly 550 employees—about 11 percent of its workforce—in what Lab Director Dave Gallagher described as a “reorganization” effort to “secure JPL’s future” through leaner operations and refocused priorities. The layoffs, affecting staff across technical, business, and support divisions, mark JPL’s fourth major reduction in the past two years, following cuts that eliminated more than 850 p

David Baltimore, the Judge Shirley Hufstedler Professor of Biology and President Emeritus of the California Institute of Technology, passed away on September 6 at his home in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He was 87. Baltimore’s career spanned over six decades, playing a crucial role in developing our current understanding of viral and cell biology. In 1975, at the age

With the academic year starting up, our Caltech fall athletes have been working at their craft since before everyone else arrived on campus. Volleyball, cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, and men’s water polo are all deep into their season so far. Let’s look at a few of our beavers’ early feats into the 2025-2026 season: Cross Country The cross country season has begun with major wins already. At the Redlands Invitational, the women’s runners averaged a time of 18:32 on a 4.5K race to

The Houston heat wrapped around me like an invisible shield as I navigated the city with the strange feeling that I was not walking to a lab or a museum, but to something that provided silence. The Rothko Chapel is hostile to sound: black walls, enormous canvases, light that doesn’t so much illuminate them as permeate through like some ancient sigh. There, in that weightless inner space, I found myself having a thought that does not frequently occur to me at Caltech, amidst equations and lab equ

Oh dearest Red Door quesadilla, Longing for you at a quarter til eleven Summer means lights off Missing a taste of heaven Reminiscing you sometimes being burnt to a crisp Yet enjoyed with and guac Sometimes my extra Taco Bell mild sauce Accompanied by friends as we munch and talk You were often shared between two So one is not such a big back But summer nights, not even. Awaiting the return of the midnight snack Oh dearest Red Door quesadilla, You’ve finally came back as it is fall

From packed stadiums to sold-out arenas, 2025 is a landmark year for live music—and nowhere is the excitement more electric than in Los Angeles. As an Asian American raised in Southern California, although it may be typical, my musical interests heavily lie in K-Pop and Asian Artists. And this summer, the concert scene in SoCal is nothing less than POPPIN. So, I wanted to share a glimpse of my concert adventures this summer—just a little taste of what’s been filling my heart (and draining my wal

For many frosh (your author included), Orientation Week provides the foremost introduction to Caltech Dining Services (C.D.S.). While the fall term meal plan activated on the fourth day of orientation (September 24), meals remained catered throughout the event. “We wanted to create intentional opportunities for new students to build community,” explains Isabel Peng, the director of New Student Transition Programs and First Year Experience at Caltech, “and shared meals were one way to do that.”

Oh dearest Red Door quesadilla, Longing for you at a quarter til eleven Summer means lights off Missing a taste of heaven Reminiscing you sometimes being burnt to a crisp Yet enjoyed with and guac Sometimes my extra Taco Bell mild sauce Accompanied by friends as we munch and talk You were often shared between two So one is not such a big back But summer nights, not even. Awaiting the return of the midnight snack Oh dearest Red Door quesadilla, You’ve finally came back as it is fall

This fall, Caltech introduced its pilot Integrated Core curriculum, a new approach to the first-year experience designed by faculty members collaborating across all five divisions. The program emerged from two years of faculty discussions convened by the Provost and Vice Provost for Education, focused on how to improve retention of foundational material and rekindle the sense of excitement students bring to campus. Rather than teaching physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and math in iso

I bought the 2025 Pasadena Coffee Passport back in February so that I had something fun to look forward to this year and support local businesses. It is now September, and I have only been to four of the fourteen shops in the passport! I’m determined to visit them all before the end of the year, so stay tuned for my next round of reviews. For now, read about the drinks, locations, and interior descriptions of the four coffee shops I visited thus far. ![](https://xguzskbxiptvhbyggkpl.supabase.c

I bought the 2025 Pasadena Coffee Passport back in February so that I had something fun to look forward to this year and support local businesses. It is now September, and I have only been to four of the fourteen shops in the passport! I’m determined to visit them all before the end of the year, so stay tuned for my next round of reviews. For now, read about the drinks, locations, and interior descriptions of the four coffee shops I visited thus far. ![Photo cred: Victoria Davis](https://xguzsk

There is an inner crack that runs through women’s journeys in science—a silent fissure, impossible to ignore. It’s the tremor before raising your hand in class, the hesitation before asking a question in a seminar, the sudden feeling of being out of place when surrounded by colleagues who seem so effortlessly confident. But as Leonard Cohen once wrote, “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” That crack does not represent failure—it is the place where beauty and resilience

[This article has two parts, between Damian’s and Camilla’s perspective:] The email pops up on my screen: of course, today is FoodFest! Who knows what surprises Tom Mannion—the mastermind of it all—has planned for us. I was finishing my last physics problem when suddenly Californian tunes started whistling through the Fleming window

The Rose is a South Korean band that unexpectedly had their big break in Europe after their 2017 single “Sorry” went viral on YouTube. Their documentary, “Come Back To Me,” chronicles the group’s rise and struggles, detailing the band’s beginnings and the passion each member has for music, as well as the challenges and obstacles that nearly ended the band. A pivotal moment in The Rose’s trajectory was a lawsuit against their former management, which they fought for two years and eventually won.

This is going to be an exercise in writing, in word vomiting, for me. I don’t have any clear idea of the scope of this piece, nor how much I’ll revise it in between typing these words and you reading them, but we have to start somewhere. The vaguely-uniformed “random inspection" officer gatekeeping the security checkpoint at the Venice airport asked me and Sarah what we did in Europe for—how long had we been traveling?—72 days. ![Our travels around the continent.](https://xguzskbxiptvhbyggkp

One of the articles I have been featured in stated that the future Dulbecco is Camilla Fezzi, who is flying to Caltech, where he was. At that time, I did not know precisely who he was…I am honest, but today, after a year and numerous books, I really want to dedicate this article to one of my fo

Once again this will most likely be somewhat outdated, as Day of the Devs takes place immediately after the live Summer Games Fest presentation. However, I enjoy it a lot more than the live presentation as it gives a deeper look into the games, and it specifically focuses on games made by indie studios. I’ve rated them mostly on how likely I am to buy them when they come out. Snap and Grab (2026) – 8/10 Amazing 80s aesthetics with high fashion and high class capers. The game centers around t

10:30 p.m. Heavy eyelids slowly closing, a reassuring lethargy gets hold of the body, tired after training. A comforting fog hugs the brain, readily shutting down consciousness to make space for confused fantastic stories. 11:30 p.m. An itch makes me twirl twice, a sudden jolt shakes the leg, a noise outside catches my attention. Comfort slips away as I lie in the twin sized bed; misleadingly labeled X.L. to convince us that’s big enough. 12:00 a.m. Nothing comforting about this darkness, my s

Jupiter was getting brighter than I’d ever seen it, brighter in real terms, closer to the earth, than it had been since 1963. And not only was it getting closer than ever, the online forums said it would be in “opposition”—directly opposite the sun from the earth’s perspective, like a full moon, only a fu

When the sky turned red from wildfire smoke and the acrid air stung the eyes of Southern Californians, a different kind of fire emerged—one lit by the

In an abrupt move, the National Science Foundation (N.S.F.) has narrowed eligibility for its Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). With effectively no transition period and little advance notice, the change has caught thousands of prospective applicants by surprise. Only senior undergraduates, first-year graduate students in their first graduate degree program, and bachelor’s degree holders with no prior enrollment in any graduate degree program can apply. Previously, students could also

On September 17, international students arrived on Caltech’s campus to attend a 3-day orientation meant to ease their transition to the United States. The group consisted of both undergraduate and graduate students, including exchange students from the U.K. and Denmark. An array of snacks and e

![A curious fox squirrel. All photos courtesy of Jieyu Zheng.](https://xguzskbxiptvhbyggkpl.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media/2761