The Distinguished Alumni Award (DAA)—Caltech’s highest honor for alumni—is presented this year to four alumni who,...
Submit your Nominations for the 2020 Distinguished Alumni Awards
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Alumni News
A Message from the Caltech Alumni Association
June 9, 2020 Dear Fellow Alumni, What happens to one of us affects all of us. We Caltech Alumni are, by and large, a...
Seminar Day Online Session Videos Now Available
Time to Crack Some Stacks—It’s Ditch Day!
Ditch Day, one of Caltech's oldest traditions, took place on May 26. 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,...
A Community that Cares
Mojolaoluwa “Josh” Sonola had a choice to make: Georgia Tech or Caltech? As the curtains were closing on his high school days, Mojolaoluwa "Josh" Sonola had a choice to make. Stay near home and go to Georgia Tech, or strike out for the West Coast and study at Caltech?...
The Caltech Effect: First in Her Family
A fascination with science led Bianca Lepe (BS ’16) to Caltech. When she found out she got into Caltech and received a full scholarship, Bianca Lepe (BS '16) screamed—and her mom cried. Watch this video from The Caltech Effect, the e-magazine of the Break Through...
Alumnus Jerry Nelson, Father of Keck Telescope, Passes Away
Caltech alumnus Jerry Nelson (BS '65), credited as being the "father of the Keck telescope," has passed away at the age of 73. Nelson was the principal designer for the W. M. Keck Observatory—the world's largest observatory, consisting of twin 10-meter telescopes atop...
Commencement 2017
Caltech's 123rd annual commencement On Friday, June 16, David Lee (PhD '74), chair of the Caltech Board of Trustees, opened the Institute's 123rd annual commencement ceremony with a reminder that discovery is a never-ending process. "Accomplishment and discovery never...
David Tirrell Named Caltech Provost
David Tirrell, the Ross McCollum-William H. Corcoran Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and the director of the Beckman Institute, will become Caltech’s tenth provost, President Thomas F. Rosenbaum announced today.
New Alumni Directory
Why I Ate a Bug
Neuroscientist Sam Wang (BS ’86) became famous for his hobby—-analyzing elections. Like many others, he predicted Hillary Clinton would win. Wang was so confident in the data, he then made a promise he would have to fulfill…
The Manifold Man
How Ian Agol (BS ’92) put the finishing stroke on a three-decades-old grand vision of mathematics—for which he won the 2016 Breakthrough Prize.