California Institute of Technology

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{{Infobox_University |name = California Institute of Technology |image = Image:CaltechLogo.png |motto = The truth shall make you free. |established = 1891 |type = Private |president= David Baltimore (departing) |city = Pasadena |state = CA |country = USA |undergrad = 896 |postgrad = 1,275 |staff= 386 |campus = Urban, 124 acres (0.5 km²) |endowment= US$1.4 billion |mascot = Beaver |website= www.caltech.edu }} The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech) is a private, coeducational university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. One of the world's premier research universities, Caltech maintains a strong emphasis on the natural sciences and engineering. Caltech also owns and manages the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), an autonomous-space-flight complex that oversees the design and operation of most of NASA's space-probes.

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History

Modern Caltech grew from a vocational school founded in Pasadena in 1891 by local businessman and politician Amos G. Throop. The school was known successively as Throop University, Throop Polytechnic Institute, and Throop College of Technology, before acquiring its current name in 1920. Caltech and Polytechnic School were part of the same institution till 1907. Polytechnic School is now a private college preparatory school across the street from Caltech.

The driving force behind the transformation of Caltech from a school of arts and crafts to a world-class scientific center was the vision of astronomer George Ellery Hale. Hale had joined Throop's board of trustees after coming to Pasadena in 1907 as the first director of the Mount Wilson Observatory. At a time when scientific research in the United States was still in its infancy, Hale saw an opportunity to create in Pasadena an institution for serious research and education in engineering and the natural sciences. Hale succeeded in attracting private gifts of land and money that allowed him to endow the school with well-equipped, modern laboratory facilities. He then convinced two of the leading American scientists of the time, physical chemist Arthur Amos Noyes and experimental physicist Robert Andrews Millikan, to join Caltech's faculty and contribute to the project of establishing it as a center for science and technology.

In 1917 Hale hired architect Bertram Goodhue to produce a master plan for the 22 acre (89,000 m²) campus. Goodhue conceived of the overall layout of the campus and designed the Physics Building, Dabney Hall, and several other structures, in which he sought to be consistent with the local climate, the character of the school, and Hale's educational philosophy. Goodhue's designs for Caltech were also influenced by the traditional Spanish mission architecture of Southern California.

Image:Millikan Library, Caltech.jpg

Under the leadership of Hale, Noyes, and Millikan (and aided by the booming economy of Southern California), Caltech grew very significantly in prestige in the 1920s. In 1923, Millikan was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics. In 1925 the school established a department of geology and hired William Bennett Munro, then chairman of the division of History, Government, and Economics at Harvard University, to create a division of humanities and social sciences at Caltech. In 1928 a division of biology was established under the leadership of Thomas Hunt Morgan, the most distinguished biologist in the United States and a discoverer of the role of genes and the chromosome in heredity. In 1926 a graduate school of aeronautics was created which eventually attracted Theodore von Kármán, who later contributed to the creation of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and who established Caltech as one of the foremost centers for rocket-science. In 1928 construction began on the Palomar Observatory.

Millikan served as "chairman of the executive council" (effectively Caltech's president) from 1921 to 1945, and his influence was such that the Institute was occasionally referred to as "Millikan's School." In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, Caltech was known as the home of arguably the two greatest theoretical particle physicists working at the time: Murray Gell-Mann and Richard Feynman. Both Gell-Mann and Feynman received Nobel Prizes for their work, which was central to the establishment of the so-called "Standard Model" of particle physics. Feynman was also widely known outside the physics community as an exceptional teacher and a colorful, unconventional character.

In 1971 a magnitude 6.5 earthquake in San Fernando caused some damage to the Caltech campus. Engineers who evaluated the damage determined that two beautiful historic buildings, Throop Hall and Goodhue-designed Culbertson Auditorium, both dating from the early days of the Institute, had received serious damage and recommended demolition. Unfortunately, the engineers were in error and it required considerably more effort to demolish these historic structures than should have been necessary had they been in real danger of collapse. A large swinging ball was used to demolish Throop Hall and required many days of pounding to level the structure.

Caltech remains, to this day, a small and highly focused university, with approximately 900 undergraduates, 1300 graduate students, and 900 faculty members (including 378 professors, 54 permanent research faculty, and 545 postdoctoral researchers.) It is a private institution, governed by its Board of Trustees.

As of 2005, Caltech claims 31 Nobel laureates to its name. This figure includes 17 alumni, 14 non-alumni professors, and 4 professors who were also alumni (Carl D. Anderson, Linus Pauling, William A. Fowler, and Edward B. Lewis). The number of awards is 32, because Pauling received the prize in both chemistry and peace. With fewer than 25,000 alumni in total, nearly one in a thousand Techers have received the Nobel Prize — a ratio unmatched by any other university. Five faculty and alumni have received a Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, while 47 have been awarded the U.S. National Medal of Science, and 10 have received the National Medal of Technology [1]. Other distinguished researchers have been affiliated with Caltech as postdoctoral scholars (e.g., Barbara McClintock, James D. Watson, and Sheldon Glashow) or visiting professors (e.g. Albert Einstein and Edward Witten).

The movie comedy Real Genius and the CBS crime drama Numb3rs are loosely based on events at Caltech. [2]

Caltech is ranked the seventh best university in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, and is tied for this spot with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Spitzer Science Center (SSC), located on the Caltech campus, is the data analysis and community support center for NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The SSC is part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) and works in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

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Academics

Academics at Caltech are famously hard, and the analogy of drinking water from a firehose is often applied. Life is sometimes described by the aphorism, "Study, sleep, or socialize: pick two," pointing to the great amount of academic work. It is characteristic of Caltech that it has emphasized excellence over size, never expanding beyond a core of academic disciplines in which it can strive for preeminence. Caltech is also known for interdisciplinary programs such as the Computation and Neural Systems (CNS) program. The small physical size of the Caltech campus also facilitates interdisciplinary interactions and cooperation.

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Academic departments

Caltech is divided into six divisions, each of which offer several degree programs, plus a number of interdisciplinary programs.

Not all of these are offered for both undergraduate and graduate students.

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Undergraduate program

Caltech is on the quarter system, meaning that students have one quarter before winter break and two quarters after. Thus, the college starts relatively late, in late September, and ends in early June rather than May like most colleges. Also, Caltech is unusual in that students normally take five classes every term rather than four, as at most colleges. Instead of majors, Caltech has "options", and offers only one minor: in Control and Dynamical Systems (CDS). Approximately 10% of students double-major. This is achievable since the humanities and social sciences majors have been designed to be done in conjunction with a science major. Although choosing two options in the same division is technically discouraged, it is still possible. The double major of math and physics is generally thought to be so hard that it is comically referred to as the plan of naive freshmen who do not yet understand the difficulty of Caltech academics.

Caltech is known for a rigorous math and science core curriculum. Students are required to take five quarters of core math, including differential equations and probability and statistics, five quarters of core physics including quantum mechanics, special relativity, and statistical mechanics, two quarters of chemistry, and a quarter of biology, as well as two quarters of laboratory classes.

Despite the high pressure of academics, few students fail classes or fail out of the school as a whole, although the option of transferring out is a running joke. This is due to several cushions that help students survive. First of all, the first two quarters of freshman year are on a pass/fail grading scheme, easing the transition to college and reducing academic stress. During the second quarter, "shadow grades" are given to help students gauge their own progress; during the first quarter, there are no grades at all. Second, there is little competition; collaboration on homework is encouraged (and often necessary for success) in almost every class. This allows even students who are not doing as well as others to learn the material and not get behind in their studies. In addition, students can request extensions on homework due dates and use many other strategies to help learn the material and handle the stress of Caltech life.

Caltech has the lowest four-year graduation rate among the leading US universities -- about 80% [3]. This is despite the fact that entering students have consistently higher average test scores (on the SAT 1 and 2) than any other university or college, as indicated by the major college rankings. Reasons for this include the fact that Caltech has less grade inflation and a smaller percentage of students who graduate with honors than academically comparable colleges. Additionally, its core curriculum is required for all majors.

Caltech professors are sometimes criticized for poor teaching due to the strong research emphasis of the institute. Nevertheless, Caltech students do encounter skilled teachers. The required courses are often taught by distinguished researchers who are not always the best teachers, and who focus instead on introducing students to the forefront of modern research. However, the situation has improved greatly over the last few decades; over 85% of entering students graduate in six years or less, compared to fewer than a third 40 years ago.

Undergraduates at Caltech are also encouraged to participate in research. About half of students do research through the annual Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) program at least once during their stay, and many continue it during the school year. Students write and submit SURF proposals for research projects in collaboration with professors, and about 70% of applicants are awarded SURFs. The program is open to both Caltech and non-Caltech undergraduate students. It serves as good preparation for graduate school and helps to explain why Caltech has the highest percentage of alumni who go on to receive a PhD of all the major universities.

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Student life

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House system

See main article: House System at Caltech

During the early 20th century, a Caltech committee visited several universities and decided to transform the undergraduate housing system from regular fraternities to a House System, similar to the residential college system of Oxford and Cambridge. Four south houses (or hovses, so named for the inscription on the gates thereof) were built: Blacker House, Dabney House, Fleming House, and Ricketts House. In the 1960s, three north houses were built: Lloyd House, Page House, and Ruddock House. During the 1990s, an additional house, Avery House, was built to accommodate those who feel the original seven houses were not suitable for them. Some students jocularly refer to the Undergraduate Computer Science Laboratory as another house, as a few spend most of their time there. The four south houses will be closed for renovation from 2005 to 2007.

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Student life traditions

Image:Beckman auditorium, Caltech.jpg

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Annual events

There are many annual traditions at Caltech, demonstrating the weird and wonderful creativity of its inhabitants.

Every Halloween, Dabney House stages a pumpkin drop from the top of the Millikan Library, the highest point on campus. According to tradition, a claim was once made that the shattering of a pumpkin frozen in liquid nitrogen and dropped from a sufficient height would produce a spark. This yearly leads onlookers to try to spot the elusive spark.

There is also the annual Ditch Day, when seniors ditch school, leaving behind elaborately designed tasks and traps at the doors of their rooms to prevent underclassmen from entering. This has evolved to the point where many seniors spend months designing mechanical, electrical, and software obstacles in order to confound the underclassmen. Each group of seniors designs a "stack" to be solved by a handful of underclassmen. The faculty has been drawn into the event as well, and cancel all classes on Ditch Day so that the underclassmen can participate in what has become a highlight of the year.

Another tradition is the playing of Wagner's ominous Ride of the Valkyries at 7 AM each morning during finals week with the largest, loudest speakers available. The playing of that piece is not allowed at any other time, and any offender is dragged into the showers to be drenched in cold water fully dressed. The playing of the Ride is such a strong tradition that when the music was used during Apollo 17 to awaken Astronaut Harrison Schmitt, a Caltech graduate, he became extremely stressed in the same manner as a student during finals week.

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Pranks

Caltech students have been known for the many pranks (also known as RF's) they have pulled off.

The two most famous are the changing of the Hollywood sign to read Caltech, by judiciously covering up certain parts of the letters, and the changing of the Rose Bowl scoreboard to an imaginary game where Caltech soundly trounced MIT. During the 1961 Rose Bowl Game, Caltech students altered the flip-cards that were raised by the stadium attendees to display "Caltech." This event is now referred to as the Great Rose Bowl Hoax.

Recently, a group of Caltech students, during the admitted students program at MIT in 2005, pulled a string of pranks, including covering up the word Massachusetts in the "Massachusetts Institute of Technology" engraving on the main building façade with a banner so that it read "That Other Institute of Technology". A group of MIT hackers retaliated by altering the banner so that the inscription read "The Only Institute of Technology".

MIT retaliated in April 2006, when students posing as the Howe & Ser Moving Company (the name, if said rapidly, sounds like howitzer) stole the 130 year old, 1.7 ton Fleming House cannon and moved it to their campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, repeating a similar prank originally performed by Harvey Mudd College in 1986. Thirty members of Fleming house traveled to MIT and reclaimed their cannon on April 10, 2006. They left a toy cannon with the note, "Here's something more your size." [4]

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Honor Code

Life in the Caltech community is governed by the Honor Code, which states simply: "No member of the Caltech community shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community." This is enforced by a Board of Control, which consists of undergraduate students[5], and by a similar body at the graduate level, called the Graduate Review Board [6].

The Honor Code, and the atmosphere of respect and trust that it promotes, allows Caltech students to enjoy privileges that make for a more relaxed atmosphere. For example, the Honor Code allows the professors to trust students sufficiently to give them take-home tests. Almost all Caltech tests are take-home, allowing students to take them on their own schedule and in their preferred environment.

The only exception to the Honor Code, implemented in 1990s in response to changes in federal regulations, concerns the sexual harrassment policy.

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Presidents of Caltech

Since Throop College of Technology became Caltech in 1920, it has been led by the following individuals:

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See also

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External links

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