Caltech Associates Fall | CalendarWinter 20202223 Discovering Tomorrow Today
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Exclusively serving the Caltech Associates community. Production of this calendar has been funded, in part, by the Caltech Employees Federal Credit Union.
Some narratives used to describe our events and presentations have been generously provided by the Caltech Science Exchange
You can read about even more thoughtprovoking events in the pages ahead. Since 1926, the Caltech Associates has connected Institute scientists and engineers to lifelong learners, community and business leaders, philanthropists, and alumni. As always, I encourage you to make the most of your membership by participating in special Associates events, making connections via our online member directory, and attending the Watson Lectures. Our unique community is strong and vibrant because of your involvement and support. You make all of these great events possible, and I offer my deepest thanks. I look forward to seeing you soon!
Warmest
Dear Associates Members and Friends, I am delighted to share with you our fall/winter 2022–2023 calendar, which showcases some of the exciting and truly groundbreaking work members of our Caltech community have under way. Now that we are again able to produce in-person events, I hope you will be as pleased as I am that things seem a little more “normal.” Gathering together is such an important part of our Associates culture! In September, we look forward to the return of our popular tour of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where we will visit the legendary Mission Control, the Spacecraft Assembly Facility, and other areas where scientists and engineers are leading the robotic exploration of Onspace.theEast Coast, we will hear from Bil Clemons about novel antibacterial therapies that could offer powerful new tools in the age-old battle between humans and bacteria. On LA’s Westside, Adam Wierman will provide an overview of his efforts to make the networked systems that govern our world sustainable and resilient. In Orange County, mRNA vaccines (such as the ones used to treat COVID) will take center stage, as Rebecca Voorhees explains how her lab employs a combination of functional and structural techniques to discern different mRNAs. We will round things out back home in Pasadena for our annual holiday luncheon at the Athenaeum. Our featured speaker will be John Dabiri, who will tackle the question, “Can organisms in the ocean change the physical structure of water?”
ExecutiveCatherineregards,E.ReevesDirector,Caltech Associates
PASADENA Day Trip: Tour of JPL Friday, September 16
Managed by Caltech and federally funded by NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is the world’s leading center for the robotic exploration of worlds humans cannot yet reach. JPL spacecraft have flown to the Sun and every planet in our solar system in the quest to understand our place in the universe and search for signs of life beyond Earth. We will begin our afternoon with a light lunch at Caltech, where graduate student Niyati Desai will tell us about her research in astronomical instrumentation. Afterward, we will take a bus to JPL and visit Mission Control, the Spacecraft Assembly Facility, and many other areas where scientists and engineers are furthering space exploration.
SOLD OUT
Multum in parvo is a Latin phrase meaning “much in little.” Just as Caltech is a small institution that makes enormous discoveries, microvirus ΦΧ is a bacteriophage with many firsts. It was part of the first “phage cocktail” (circa 1920). It played a central role in the birth of molecular biology, which was largely pioneered at Caltech (1950s). Its tiny genome was the first to be sequenced (1977) and the first to be synthesized (2003). Additionally—and mysteriously—unlike most phage, ΦΧ encodes a simple peptide that alone is sufficient for bacterial cell lysis (breakdown of the cell membrane).
EAST COAST ΦΧ: Multum in Parvo
Thursday, September 15
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Bil Clemons, the Arthur and Marian Hanisch Memorial Professor of Biochemistry, and his team have demonstrated the mechanism for ΦΧ’s lysis gene. Professor Clemons will share insights about this discovery, which has implications for the development of novel antibacterial therapies that could provide powerful new tools in the age-old battle between humans and bacteria.
President’s Circle Dinner
Saturday, October 1 President Thomas F. Rosenbaum and Professor Katherine T. Faber will visit the Bay Area to celebrate President’s Circle members and their generous support of Caltech, and to share recent Institute highlights.
Tuesday, October 4
ORANGE COUNTY
Thursday, October 27
Understanding how genetic information translates into protein is one of the classic problems in molecular biology. During the multi-step process of converting genetic information into protein, a percentage of mRNAs (such as those used in the COVID vaccine) will “fail” at each step of maturation. Rebecca Voorhees, assistant professor of biology and biological engineering, will explain how her lab can discern how failing mRNAs and nascent polypeptides can be recognized so as to eventually prevent diseases.
WESTSIDE Toward Trustworthy AI for Safety-Critical Systems hosted by Marina Chen (MS ’80, PhD ’83) and Chi-Fu Huang
Understanding How Cells Make Proteins (and Their Connection to Human Disease)
Adam Wierman, professor of computing and mathematical sciences, develops new mathematical tools in machine learning, optimization, control, and economics and applies these tools to design new algorithms and markets with provable guarantees that can be deployed in data centers, the electricity grid, transportation systems, and beyond. He will tell us about his lab’s innovative efforts to make the networked systems that govern our world sustainable and resilient.
President’s Circle Dinner hosted by Associates President Tracy Fu (BS ’92) and Sharon Wee Thursday, November 3
Such was The New York Times’ impression of the Jerusalem Quartet. Since the ensemble’s founding in 1993, the musicians have embarked on a journey of growth and maturation. This experience has resulted in a wide repertoire and stunning depth of expression that carries on the string quartet tradition in a unique manner. The ensemble has found its core in a warm, full, human sound and an egalitarian balance between high and low voices.
CaltechLive! Event: Jerusalem Quartet Sunday, October 23 “Passion, precision, warmth, a gold blend: these are the trademarks of this excellent Israeli string quartet.”
In celebration of their generous support of Caltech, President’s Circle Associates members are invited to enjoy an intimate dinner in Tracy and Sharon’s home, where President Thomas F. Rosenbaum will share news about recent Institute successes.
EAST COAST
PASADENA Holiday Luncheon: Do Swimming Animals Mix the Ocean
Thursday, December 8
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Advances in quantum science have already led to remarkable technologies such as lasers, magnetic resonance imaging, and billions of transistors packed onto a single microchip. But these technologies barely scratch the surface of how quantum theory has altered our view of what’s possible in the universe.
The oceans are teeming with trillions of swimming organisms, from bacteria to blue whales. Can these organisms, especially those that migrate vertically every day and regionally every year, change the physical structure of the water column? The answer to this question has potentially important implications for ecological and climate models.
PASADENA Our Quantum Future
Celebrate the holidays at the Athenaeum with John Dabiri, the Centennial Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, and an exploration of the still controversial notion of biogenic ocean mixing.
Join us for a discussion about the challenge and promise of quantum technology, and learn about the potential for powerful quantum computers, unhackable encryption, and astonishingly precise measurement devices. You will hear from Rana Adhikari, professor of physics; Oskar Painter, the John G. Braun Professor of Applied Physics; and John Preskill, the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics.
PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE TRAVEL Jackson Hole May 2023
Experience Wyoming’s natural wonders—Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks—during a five-day journey through the Wild West. We will begin our outdoor adventure with a private tour of the National Museum of Wildlife Art, a hot-air balloon ride at sunset the next morning, and an alfresco dinner on Elk Island in the middle of Jackson Lake. Our trip will conclude with a visit to North American natural wonder Old Faithful.
ORANGE COUNTY How do you feel?
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
Total Solar Eclipse: Texas April 5–9, 2024
We often say that seeing is believing, but touching is also believing. Our sense of touch holds the capacity to connect us with the world and warn us of harm and hurt. But how exactly do you sense a gentle breeze or a cactus pricking your finger? How do you feel the embrace of a loved one? The sense of touch depends on mechanotransduction, the conversion of pressure into chemical signals, which is perhaps the last sensory modality not understood at the molecular level.
The Molecules That Sense Touch
PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE TRAVEL
Join the Caltech Associates for a once-in-a-lifetime view of a total solar eclipse in Boerne, Texas, a friendly community with German history. We will also visit the landmarks and trendy neighborhoods of Austin, beginning with a city tour that includes the Central Library and Lady Bird Lake. The following day, we will explore the Natural Bridge Caverns before heading to San Antonio, where we will enjoy lunch at the Buckhorn Saloon and visits to historical sites such as the Alamo and El Mercado. Our trip will conclude with a Champagne toast as we witness the total solar eclipse in a private area of the hotel.
Ardem Patapoutian (PhD ’96), winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, will tell us about work from his laboratory that “makes sense” of mechanotransduction, as well as clinical investigations that have confirmed the importance of these channels in human physiology.
Upcoming Winter/Spring 2023 Programs VIRTUAL Seeing Far Beyond the Skin Using Harmless Light: Photoacoustic Tomography of Molecular Absorption from Organelles to Patients with Professor Lihong Wang NORTHERN CA Microscale Devices: Their Advances and Limitations with Professor Azita Emami PASADENA The Neural Circuitry of Sex and Violence with Professor David Anderson EAST COAST AI (Artificial Intelligence) for withSustainability Professor Anima Anandkumar VIRTUAL Sensing of Greenhouse Gases from Space with Professor Paul Wennberg
California Institute of Technology 1200 E. California Blvd. MC Pasadena,5-32 CA associates.caltech.edu91125 BOARD MEMBERS Betty Huang, President Chip Fairchild, Immediate Past President Tracy Fu (BS ’92), President Elect Bill PaulErichRubyEricJodyCarolynMaryMichaelGingerBogaardCaldwellCannAnnCloydDenhamDonnellyFung(BS’90)HolderKreidlerLee(BS’67,PhD ’72) Rhonda MacDonald (BS ’74) Susan Murakami (BS ’75) Tim EvangelosZachBruceNeufeldNickersonRivkin(BS’14)Simoudis (BS ’83) Linda Tolbert Dan Whelan (BS ’79, PhD ’85) Joe ThomasElizabethTomElizabethStephenAnanthPriscillaIleneCarlRobertCathleenJohnLyndaJaneFredEMERITIWittePRESIDENTSBlum(PhD’68)FactorBooneFetterH.GlanvilleA.GodzikT.Jenkins(BS’65)V.Larson(BS’52)†O.MarshallMcClureNatarajanRogers†LoucksSamsonTisch(BS’61)TitoJ.Tyson(BS’54, PhD ’67) † DECEASED CALTECH ASSOCIATES STAFF Catherine E. Reeves Executive Director Matthew E.P. Hartigan Director, Development & Outreach Jennifer AssistantAlcántaraDirector, Engagement & Programming Lelia MembershipMarshall& Member Services Coordinator Isabella ProgramFaithSupport and Production Coordinator