VOLUME LXXIX, NUMBER 1, SPRING 2016 VOLUME LXXIX, NUMBER 1, SPRING 2016

2 Caltech on Social Media 3 From the Editor 4 Random Walk Collapsed Stars • Tutoring Vets • A Gray Fête • And More 11 Origins From Fratboys to Flems: The History of Caltech’s Unique House System 12 No Rest for a Nobelist Caltech Nobel Prize winners reflect on research, teaching, and purpose after the accolades. 18 Where Brains Meet Brawn T he Caltech athletics program has a long history of standout competitors who are successful in both sports and science. 20 A Feeling Touch BY KATIE NEITH A Caltech biologist is getting some help from the BRAIN Initiative to grow his neuroprosthetics program and bring tactile sensations to the users of robotic arms. 24 Glitz and Qubits BY MARCUS WOO The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, which aims to elevate researchers to celebrity status, has put Caltech quantum computing and superstring theory experts in the spotlight. 28 Beyond the Beaten Path BY LORI DAJOSE Recent Caltech alumni reminisce on taking a road less traveled after earning their bachelor’s degrees. 35 In Memoriam Eric Davidson 36 Endnotes Invent a Caltech-themed prize. Who would you give it to, and why? multimedia

Caltech on Social Media Follow us, retweet us, regram us, and let us know you’re talking about us by including @Caltech in your tweets and @caltechedu VOLUME LXXIX, NUMBER 1, SPRING 2016 in your Instagram posts.

@ggainford Dancing, singing, Keanu, EDITOR IN CHIEF Hawking, Antman. That’s science @Caltech Lori Oliwenstein Entangled Evening. MANAGING EDITOR Doreese Norman @nisbjorn To be honest @plutokiller kind SENIOR EDITOR of owed us a new planet #Planet9 Katie Neith CONTRIBUTING WRITERS @tech_grrrl OH @ caltech: “I just Andrew Allan, Lori Dajose, Kimm Fesenmaier, Katie Neith, Lori Oliwenstein, Nehaly Shah, Ker Than, Marcus Woo, Dave Zobel watched a girl put Fanta in her ice cream COPY EDITORS cone instead of her glass. And it’s not even Michael Farquhar, Sharon Kaplan finals week.” ART DIRECTOR Jenny K. Somerville @roybotzroybotz @Caltech winning DESIGN AND LAYOUT at basketball? I would check – they may Keith & Co. be robots…#robotics #robots #humor #art THE CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY #whhiirrrr-beep Farnaz Khadem, Chief Communications Officer Diana Jergovic, Vice President for Strategy Implementation Typical Caltech @CPPGeophysics THE CALTECH ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Seismo coffee break: “yes, quake could have Lee Fisher, President occurred on Banning fault. Did I ever tell Read E&S on the go at EandS.caltech.edu you story of how I named that fault?” Contact E&S at [email protected] Daughter just told Engineering & Science (ISSN 0013-7812) is published quarterly at Caltech, @ TableTopGeneral 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125. Annual subscription me her @Lammily doll is “a professor at $20.00 domestic, $30.00 foreign air mail; single copies $5.00. Send subscriptions to Engineering & Science, Caltech Mail Code 12-71, Pasadena, CA 91125. @Caltech, and she rides her horse to work” Third-class postage paid at Pasadena, CA. All rights reserved. Reproduction of material contained herein forbidden without authorization. ©2016, California Institute of Technology. Published by Caltech and the Alumni Association.

Printed by Navigator Cross-Media, Inc., Glendale, California. PICTURE CREDITS Cover: (left circle) Keith & Co.; (middle circle) grebcha/shutterstock.com; (right circle: middle) Keith & Co.; (right circle: lower left) Jbourjai/Wikimedia.org; (right circle: upper left) Science Photo/shutterstock.com; TOC: (left circle: basketball) irin-k/ shutterstock.com; (left circle: petri dish) Satirus/iStock.com; (left circle: chalk board) Lance Hayashida; (lower left circle: magnifying glass) Rtimages/shut- terstock.com; (lower left circle: rock) Albert Russ/shutterstock.com; (middle circle) Vladimir Popovi/iStock.com; (lower middle right circle) Believe_In_Me/iStock. com; (lower right circle) Juliann/shutterstock.com; (upper right circle) Karramba Production/shutterstock.com; 3: Keith & Co.; 4–5: Tania Darnton; 6: (left) Stephen Voss; 6: (right) Moesta et al./Nature; 7: Jenny K. Somerville; 8: (top) Haowen Ruan Mooseok Jang and Changhuei Yang of Caltech; 8: (bottom) Katie Neith; 9: Lance Hayashida; 10: (top) courtesy of the Caltech Archives; 10: (bottom) Lance Hayashida; 11: courtesy of the Caltech Archives; 13–17: (Robert A. Millikan, Carl David Anderson, Richard P. Feynman, Max Delbrück, William Alfred Fowler, Ahmed H. Zewail) courtesy of the Caltech Archives; 15: (David Baltimore) Lance Hayashida; 16: (Rudolph A. Marcus) Lance Hayashida; 17: (Robert H. Grubbs) Lance Hayashida; 17: (Eric Betzig) Matt Staley/HHMI; 18: courtesy of the Caltech @caltechswimdive Pretty nice view from Sports Information Office; 20: Mark McGinnis; 22: Seth Hansen; 24: Joey Guidone @SalzmanArt; 26: Breakthrough Prize; 28: Dustin Snipes; 30: courtesy of Cindy Ko; last night’s recovery practice #gobeavers 31: courtesy of Peter Buhler; 32: courtesy of Todd Gingrich; 33: courtesy of Emma Tweets and Instagram comments may have been edited Schmidgall; 35: Lance Hayashida; 36: (top) courtesy of the Caltech Archives; 36: (middle) Lance Hayashida; 36: (below) xingmin07 for spelling and grammar. from the editor

After the Prize

I often talk about Caltech as being my personal Disneyland, a place full of wonders and attractions for the science geek. Or sometimes I’ll describe the people here as my celebrities. In fact, what I knew of Caltech before I came here in late 2008 were the names of its science “stars”: Linus Pauling, Richard Feynman, David Baltimore, to name only a few. Unlike the Kardashians, this cult of personality revolves around achievement not notoriety. These are people whose work has led to a Nobel (35 awards given to 34 Caltech- connected scientists, with five of those in residence and seven named in within the past 15 years) or a MacArthur grant (17 faculty members) or a National Medal of Science (58 faculty and alumni), or any of the many other honors out there. Scientists are generally uncomfortable talking about prizes and accolades; they are, instead, focused on the work. But if you look at the careers of those who have been recognized for their scientific or other efforts, it becomes clear that recognition has some kind of effect: it opens doors and possibilities, and sometimes even changes paths. (See “Life of a Laureate,” page 12.) You could argue that that’s just the way these scientists are built, that they would have done amazing things anyway. But since I can’t figure out how to do that controlled study, I’m comfortable positing that—whatever the reason—the after-the-prize lives of Caltech scientists are rich, productive, and fascinating. That’s why we’ve spent this issue looking at the work that comes after the accolades. For instance, in “A Feeling Touch” (page 20), Katie Neith considers the effect two BRAIN Initiative grants have had on biologist Richard Andersen’s robotic limb research. Marcus Woo looks at how and whether the relatively new —and extremely well-funded—Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics is creating celebrities out of quantum computing and superstring experts in “Glitz and Qubits” (page 24). And recent alum Lori Dajose (BS ’15) talks with other Caltech alums given scholarships and fellowships that have taken them “Beyond the Beaten Path” (page 28). For all of these remarkable scientists, no matter the stage of their career, the best may very well be yet to come. I can’t wait to read the next chapters of their stories—and of those who will undoubtedly come after them.

—Lori Oliwenstein, Editor in Chief 4 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE SPRING 2016 GOOD LUCK GREEN These glowing crystals generated by Tania Darnton, a Caltech graduate student in the lab of chemist Harry Gray, are composed of the + tetraphenylphosphonium (Ph4P ) salt of the compound tetrakis(diphosphonato) diplatinate(II), commonly known as Pt(POP) due to its phosphorus-oxygen- phosphorus bridges. This compound is a precursor to another molecule Darnton is studying for her thesis, which is a highly luminescent derivative of Pt(POP) with possible applications in oxygen- sensing thin films and catalytic electron- transfer reactions. According to Darnton, the crystals were created via the slow evaporation of a methanol solution of the compound—quite by accident, in fact. + She hadn’t synthesized the Ph4P salt before, and after several frustrating hours of trying unsuccessfully to isolate the compound she decided to just leave the solution out and try again in the morning. When she returned the following day, she was greeted with bright green crystals, which she called a “wonderful reward” after the disappointment of the night before. Such compounds could be used in building detectors for laboratories to ensure proper atmospheric conditions for sensitive chemical reactions.

SPRING 2016 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE 5 random walk Building I’m always surprised Powerful and delighted by the Magnetic ways in which we expand Fields our understanding.

When certain massive stars use up A visualization of the strong, ordered magnetic all of their fuel and collapse onto field built up by dynamo action in the core of their cores, explosions 10 to 100 times a rapidly rotating, collapsed star. brighter than the average supernova occur. Astrophysicists from Caltech, UC Berkeley, the Albert Einstein causing its outer edge to rotate faster Institute, and the Perimeter Institute than its center. However, no previous for Theoretical Physics have used models could prove this process could the National Science Foundation’s strengthen a magnetic field to the extent Blue Waters supercomputer to needed to collimate a jet, largely because perform three-dimensional computer these simulations lacked the resolution to simulations to fill in an important resolve where the flow becomes unstable. Whether we’re missing piece of our understanding Lead author on the paper Philipp of what drives these blasts. Mösta—who started the work while a contemplating the first In the past, scientists have postdoctoral scholar at Caltech and is simulated the evolution of massive now a NASA Einstein Fellow at UC moments of the universe, stars from their collapse to jet-driven Berkeley—and his colleagues developed explosions by factoring unrealistically a simulation of a rapidly rotating the fundamentals of large magnetic fields into their collapsed stellar core and scaled it so models—without explaining how they that it could run on the Blue Waters life here on Earth, could be generated in the first place. supercomputer, known for its ability to “That’s what we were trying to provide sustained high-performance personalized medicine, understand with this study,” says computing for problems that produce Luke Roberts, a NASA Einstein large amounts of information. The team’s or the capability of the Fellow at Caltech and a coauthor on highest-resolution simulation took 18 a paper reporting the team’s findings days of around-the-clock computing phone in your pocket— in the journal Nature. “How can you by about 130,000 computer processors start with the magnetic field you might to simulate just 10 milliseconds of the science continues to expect in a massive star that is about to core’s evolution. collapse—or at least an initial magnetic In the end, the researchers transform our lives on field that is much weaker than the field were able to simulate the so-called required to power these explosions— magnetorotational instability responsible a daily basis.” and build it up to the strength that for the amplification of the magnetic you need to collimate a jet and drive field. As theory predicted, they saw that — France A. Córdova (PhD ’79), director of a jet-driven supernova?” the instability creates small patches the National Science Foundation, in an For more than 20 years, theory of an intense magnetic field distributed interview with Ben Tomlin of the Caltech Alumni Association. has suggested that the magnetic field throughout the core of the collapsed of the innermost regions of a massive star. They found that a dynamo process star that has collapsed, also known as a connects those patches and generates proto-neutron star, could be amplified currents that amplify the magnetic fields, by an instability in the flow of its turning them into the kind needed to plasma if the core is rapidly rotating, power jets. —KF

6 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE SPRING 2016 TRACKING DOWN THE “MISSING” CARBON FROM THE MARTIAN ATMOSPHERE

Mars is blanketed by a mostly carbon says Renyu Hu, a postdoctoral scholar their nuclei but different numbers of dioxide atmosphere—one that is far too at JPL, a visitor in planetary science at neutrons, and thus different masses. thin to prevent large amounts of water on Caltech, and lead author on the paper Comparing measurements from martian the surface of the planet from subliming that appeared in Nature Communications. meteorites to those recently collected by or evaporating. But many researchers When considering how the early NASA’s Curiosity rover, they found that have suggested that the planet was once atmosphere might have transitioned to the atmosphere is unusually enriched in shrouded in an atmosphere many times its current state, there are two possible carbon-13. To explain that, they describe thicker than Earth’s. For decades that mechanisms for the removal of excess a mechanism involving a photochemical left the question, “Where did all the carbon dioxide (CO2). Either the CO2 cascade that produces carbon atoms that carbon go?” was incorporated into minerals in rocks have enough energy to escape the atmo- Now scientists from Caltech and called carbonates or it was lost to space. sphere, and they show that carbon-12 is JPL think they have a possible answer. A separate study coauthored by far more likely to escape than carbon-13. The team suggests that 3.8 billion years Bethany Ehlmann, assistant professor of “With this mechanism, we can ago, Mars might have had only a moder- planetary science at Caltech, used data describe an evolutionary scenario for ately dense atmosphere. The researchers from several Mars-orbiting satellites to Mars that makes sense of the apparent have identified a photochemical process inventory carbonate rocks, showing that carbon budget, with no missing process- that could have helped such an early there are not enough carbonates in the es or reservoirs,” says Ehlmann, who is atmosphere evolve into the current thin upper crust to contain the missing carbon also a coauthor on the Hu study. —KF one without creating the problem of from a very thick early atmosphere. “missing” carbon. To study the escape-to-space “With this new mechanism, every- scenario, scientists examined the ratio Insider Info thing that we know about the martian of carbon-12 and carbon-13, two stable atmosphere can now be pieced together isotopes of the element carbon that into a consistent picture of its evolution,” have the same number of protons in Former E&S editor Doug Smith contributed to more than issues of the magazine prior to his retirement in TRIPLE THREAT November 2015. The public high school in Blue Springs, Missouri, just outside Kansas City, graduates more than 500 seniors each year. Remarkably, the valedictorian in 85 2015 was the younger sister of the valedictorian in 2014—who was the younger sister of the valedictorian in 2013. alumni, Arthur McDonald And all three are now Caltech undergraduates. (PhD ’70) and Ian Agol These are the Butkovich sisters: junior Slava and sophomore Nina, both majoring in chemical engineering, and freshman Lazarina (“Laza”), currently (BS ’92), have been named deciding between chemical engineering and chemistry. recipients of 2016 Breakthrough The sisters represent “a three-peat,” says Caltech admissions director Prize awards. Read about previous Jarrid Whitney, not a package deal. “All our applicants are reviewed Caltech winners on page 24. independently and without regard to siblings, parents, or other legacies. 2 For three family members to receive consecutive offers of admission indicates how tremendously talented all three of them must be.” For their part, Slava, Nina, and Laza (pictured right to left, below) find their own nearly identical trajectories Sports Illustrated dedicated nearly unsurprising. “We were taught at a young age that science majors can do a lot of good for society,” Slava says. In fact, according to all three, one of the biggest challenges since leaving high school has been learning to rely on something they had words to a story on the recent successes of honestly never needed before now: 7,000the Caltech men’s basketball team. Learn more study groups. —DZ about our stellar student athletes on page 18.

SPRING 2016 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE 7 random walk DID YOU KNOW The 2015–16 academic year marks the 50th anniversary of the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Humanities was one of the Institute’s original divisions, dating back to 1926, but social sciences were not added until the 1965–66 school year. Learn more at hss.caltech.edu.

On the Grounds POP, FOCUS, Fire once illuminated these bricks, now seen warming in the midday DESTROY sun. Originally placed on the interior chimney of the Throop Club—a A new technique developed at Caltech light transmission before and after such student hangout built in the mid- that uses gas-filled microbubbles for an event, the Caltech researchers can 1920s and dismantled in the early focusing light inside tissue could one modify the wavefront of a laser beam so 1960s—the bricks were “sold” day provide doctors with a minimally that it focuses on the original locations by students to raise money, and invasive way of destroying tumors of the microbubbles. The result, Yang feature the names of individuals and with lasers, and lead to improved explains, “is as if you’re searching for clubs who donated funds. When diagnostic medical imaging. someone in a dark field, and suddenly the Throop Club was demolished, The primary challenge with the person lets off a flare. For a brief Caltech kept its promise that the focusing light inside the body is that moment, the person is illuminated bricks would never leave campus. biological tissue is optically opaque. and you can home in on their location.” So where did they end up? Unlike transparent glass, the cells and If the technique is shown to work Answer: The south-facing exterior wall of the proteins that make up tissue scatter effectively inside living tissue—without, Winnett Student Center. and absorb light. “Our tissues behave for example, any negative effects from very much like dense fog as far as light the bursting microbubbles—it could is concerned,” says Changhuei Yang, enable a range of research and medical professor of electrical engineering, applications. For example, by combining bioengineering, and medical the microbubbles with an antibody engineering. “Just like we cannot probe engineered to seek out biomarkers focus a car’s headlight through fog, associated with cancer, doctors could scientists have always had difficulty target and then destroy tumors deep focusing light through tissues.” inside the body or detect malignant To get around this problem, Yang growths much sooner. and his team turned to microbubbles, “Ultrasound and X-ray techniques commonly used in medicine to enhance can only detect cancer after it forms contrast in ultrasound imaging. First, a mass,” Yang says. “But with optical gas-filled microbubbles encapsulated focusing, you could catch cancerous cells by thin protein shells and injected into while they are undergoing biochemical tissue are ruptured with ultrasound changes but before they undergo waves. By measuring the difference in morphological changes.” —KT

8 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE SPRING 2016 BY THE NUMBERS VOLUNTEERS FOR VETS Just northeast of the Caltech campus, students and staff have been lending a hand as tutors at the Pasadena City College Veterans Resource Center (VRC)—established in 2010 under a grant from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office—to provide support and guidance to the campus veterans. Patricia D’Orange-Martin, coordinator of the VRC, calls the Caltech cohort “the core of our tutoring/ mentoring team” and credits it with providing support, “particularly for veterans preparing to transfer to four-year colleges and universities.”

Years that Caltech Number of student Number of Caltech students and staff veterans who have tutors during the Percentage of the Number of subjects have been participating received tutoring 2015 spring and fall program’s support provided covered in tutoring in the program from Caltech volunteers semesters by Caltech volunteers sessions 3 50 30 60+ 5

Serving veterans, says Mitch Aiken, associate director for educational outreach at Caltech’s Center for Teaching, Learning, & Outreach, “provides our students with the chance to deliver meaningful one-on-one outreach.” It also allows them to “give back, expand their own worldview, and get in some excellent real-world teaching experience,” he says. —DZ

billion suns, and then fade away. Transients Happen, the project was “These are extreme events where recently granted $4.5 million through a lot of elements that we see around us the National Science Foundation’s are actually synthesized,” says Kasliwal. Partnerships in International Research Kasliwal continues to work with and Education (PIRE) program. Its PTF and its successor, the Zwicky goal is to detect transients and then Transient Facility (ZTF), but is also “stay unbeaten by sunrise.” leading a major international project “We just go around the globe and devoted to chasing and studying keep passing the baton so that the sky transients using observatories around remains dark,” explains Kasliwal. the globe. Known as GROWTH, for Here are a few more fun facts Global Relay of Observatories Watching about Kasliwal:

S he grew up in Indore, India, and came to the United States as an adventurous 15-year-old. Noting Kasliwal’s love of the natural sciences, a teacher in India advised Kasliwal to apply to American boarding schools. She took her advice and attended a college-prep school in Connecticut for her junior year. She spent her senior year taking Mansi Kasliwal is a new assistant classes and working with a professor at Bryn Mawr College. professor but certainly not a Caltech S he studied applied and engineering physics as an undergrad at Cornell. Astrophysics newbie. The astronomer earned her was only her concentration, but at Cornell she was able to work with the late Jim Houck, PhD here in 2011, having helped the principal investigator for the infrared spectrograph on NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. design and build the Palomar Transient “Spitzer was being launched, and I got to see the data start flowing in,” says Kasliwal. Factory (PTF), an automated wide- “From then on, I was just completely hooked.” field survey at Palomar Observatory that systematically searches for cosmic H er work has already made it into textbooks. Kasliwal received a freshman astronomy transients—powerful events like textbook in the mail from a professor she had interned with and was astonished to find supernovae that appear in the night a page in it dedicated to a supernova that she had discovered. “It was one of the most sky with the light of a million to a awesome moments for me,” she says.

SPRING 2016 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE 9 random walk

Celebrating the Shared Legacy of Beckman and Gray In November 2015, Caltech marked both the 25th anniversary of the Beckman Institute and the 80th birthday of chemist Harry Gray with a two-day “Invention and Imagination in the Molecular Sciences” symposium. Gray and the late Arnold Beckman (PhD ’28), former Caltech professor and chairman emeritus of the Caltech board of trustees, began a close working relationship in the late 1960s, when Gray arrived at Caltech. Beckman (left) congratulates Harry Gray on becoming the first Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry in 1981. Gray is also the founding director of the Beckman Institute, a multi- disciplinary center for research in the chemical and biological sciences that was dedicated in 1989 with funds from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation.

available now on CALTECH.EDU

Engage The 2015−16 Watson Lecture Series kicks off Watch Read Engage on Wednesday, October Hear more about the latest Did you know that Caltech has its Caltech professor14, Nicolas 2015, atWey- 8 p.m. with Caltech discoveries and research own sustainability team? Learn Gomez explores JPL’ssome Paul of the Weissman, facts an news straight from our scientists more about our efforts to reduce our and fiction surroundingexpert on Christopher planetary ice. and engineers in videos on the environmental impact and create a Columbus’s geographicalFind out more surveys at caltech. in “Research & Science” playlist at greener campus at sustainability. a Watson Lectureedu/calendar/public- on April 20. Find youtube.com/caltech. caltech.edu. out more at caltech.edu/calendar/events. public-events.

10 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE SPRING 2016 origins

FROM FRATBOYS TO FLEMS: The History of Caltech’s Unique House System

For nearly 85 years, the House system at Caltech has played a critical role in undergraduate social and residential life. In 2002, Ted Jou (BS ’03) wrote “A History of Undergraduate Self-Governance at Caltech” for a Student Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) project, which, among other things, outlined the origins of Caltech as a residential college. Excerpts from his paper tell the tale of the first four Houses (or Hovses, as inscribed on the actual buildings).

On his seventy-fourth birthday, the Gamma Sigma (est. 1925), Kappa Fleming Hovse President of the Caltech Board of Gamma a.k.a. Gnome (est. 1897), • “Choice of rooms in each house shall Trustees, Arthur H. Fleming, was and Phi Alpha Ro a.k.a. Pharos (est. be given according to seniority.” surprised with the announcement that 1921). This still left about 350 of the the last unit of the new student dormi- enrolled undergraduates living in their • “Students shall be given the tories would be named in his honor. In own housing. The trustees decided that opportunity to wait on tables.” 1930, twenty donors gave $10,000 each Caltech should seek to house as many to fund the construction of Fleming of its students on campus as possible • “Conduct of house functions and the House, and a new era in Caltech so a plan for a group of four undergrad- maintenance of order shall be placed undergraduate student life was born. uate dorms was drafted. Construction entirely in the hands of the students.” Before that time, there was only began as soon as $200,000 per dorm room for about 60 students on campus was raised. On March 11, 1930, • “Social affairs and the entertainment of in a single dormitory. Caltech students the California Tech proclaimed, visitors should be strongly encouraged.” were spread throughout a variety of “Dorms will Rise at Once!” off-campus housing, which included A committee of nine students • “Inter-house and intra-house five fraternity houses: Sigma Alpha Pi was formed to investigate student competitions should be fostered.” (est. 1914), Pi Alpha Tau (est. 1921), living conditions and make detailed recommendations for the conduct The fraternities at Caltech all agreed and organization of the new under- to the recommendations with very graduate dormitories. Members little resistance and the next year, they of the committee toured the U.S., each moved as groups into the four Europe, and Canada to find out what new Houses. The Gnomes moved into organization would be best for the Ricketts House, the Pharos moved student residences. On March 5, 1931, into Blacker, the Gamma Sigmas they published their findings in the moved into Dabney, and Pi Alpha Tau, California Tech. Their recommendations the smallest fraternity, joined Sigma formed the foundation for the under- Alpha Pi in colonizing Fleming. graduate Houses at Caltech, and many of their ideals hold true today. Here Since the early 1930s, the four Houses are some highlights from their report: have grown to eight, with Lloyd, Page, and Ruddock Houses coming on board in • “Freshmen shall be distributed among 1960, and Avery House—built in 1996— the four houses as equally as possible.” joining the roster of undergraduate-only student residences in 2005.

Ricketts Hovse

SPRING 2016 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE 11 f you were to write the life story of a Nobel laureate, you might be forgiven for wanting to make the early morning call and its immediate aftermath the zenith of the story’s arc, followed by little more than a tuxedo, a speech presented before Swedish royalty, and several bottles of champagne. You’d be wrong, but you’d be forgiven. For the vast majority of the 34 Caltech faculty and alumni who have together won 35 Nobels—Linus Pauling (PhD ’25) being the Institute’s dual laureate, with a 1954 prize in chemistry and a 1962 peace prize—the award is just the beginning, an avenue- opening, support-generating, idea-spawning opportunity for a second, and sometimes a third or fourth, act. Caltech’s Nobelists have picked up prizes only to switch fields, revisit dead-end questions, or dig deeper into the work that garnered them the award in the first place. They’ve gone birdwatching, fought for recognition of the dangers of radiation to the human body, worked to revamp education, and been named president of the California Institute of Technology. In other words, they’ve taken the Nobel Prize, and the opportunities and possibilities it affords, and made the very most of them. Here is just a taste of where Caltech’s Nobel laureates have gone, what they’ve done, and how they’ve impacted our world. —LO

Throop University is founded. The school would go by three different names before becoming the California Institute of Technology in 1920.

1891

12 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE SPRING 2016 Robert A. Millikan (1868–1953) Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923 “for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect”

Two years prior to winning the Nobel Prize, Millikan became the director of the Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics and the inaugural chairman of the Executive Council of Caltech, meaning he was effectively the school’s first president. He served in this position until his retirement in 1945. Millikan also coined the term cosmic ray when, after receiving the Nobel, he focused his research at Caltech on radiation at the age of 31 for the discovery of the Edwin M. McMillan from outer space. positron, Anderson and a graduate student (1907–1991; BS ’28, MS ’29) “Millikan was doing all these discovered a subatomic particle similar Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1951 (with wonderful things with cosmic rays, to the electron called the muon. He then Glenn T. Seaborg) “for their discoveries in and we all measured the charge on the went on to conduct research in rocketry. the chemistry of the transuranium elements” electron in the laboratory, so his name Anderson described the financial was known to every interested student,” impact of the prize in a 1979 oral history: In 1954, McMillan was appointed recalled William A. Fowler (PhD ’36), “I happened to get it when I was young— associate director of the Berkeley Radiation in a 1994 oral history about why he I was an assistant professor, I think. I, of Laboratory and became director in 1958, came to Caltech. Fowler himself won course, didn’t have much money, and I had a position he held until his retirement in a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983. a mother to support, who was not well and 1973. During that time, he also served in had to make several trips to the hospital. several other leadership positions, including Carl D. Anderson . . . So it was a great help to me financially. as the chairman of the National Academy (1905–1991; BS ’27, PhD ’30) Incidentally, I didn’t have enough money of Sciences from 1968 to 1971. After Nobel Prize in Physics in 1936 to get to Stockholm. So Millikan loaned retiring, McMillan spent a year working “for his discovery of the positron” me $500 for a one-way ticket, which I paid on an experiment at CERN to measure back when I came back from Stockholm.” the magnetic moment of the muon. Anderson studied under Robert A. Millikan and spent his entire academic and research career at Caltech. In the same year that he won a Nobel

Carl D. Anderson Edwin M. McMillan (BS ’27, PhD ’30) (BS ’28, MS ’29) Physics Chemistry Robert A. Millikan Thomas H. Morgan Linus Pauling Physics Physiology or Medicine (PhD ’25) Chemistry

1923 1933 1936 1951 1954

SPRING 2016 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE 13 As for how this work would impact twice. Feynman had this amazing knack David Baltimore (1938–) the world, Einar Löfstedt, Member of the for making physics clear and fun at the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Royal Academy of Sciences, summed it up same time. I immediately went looking for in 1975 (with Renato Dulbecco and Howard in an address to McMillan and Seaborg more of his talks, and I’ve been a big fan Martin Temin) “for their discoveries at the 1951 Nobel banquet: “You have ever since. Years later I bought the rights to concerning the interaction between tumour succeeded in augmenting the well-known those lectures and worked with Microsoft viruses and the genetic material of the cell” periodical system with no less than six to get them posted online for free. new elements. The result is, even for the “In that sense, Feynman has a lot in Baltimore, the Robert Andrews Millikan layman, imposing in itself; in addition, common with all the amazing teachers Professor of Biology, and President among the many new kinds of atoms you I’ve met in schools across the country. Emeritus of Caltech, was interviewed have produced, are those which can be You walk into their classroom and recently about his life and work after used for generating atomic energy—let it immediately feel the energy—the way they the prize. be noted, not merely for military, but also engage their students—and their passion “When you win the Nobel Prize, you for peaceful ends. This is a vast perspective for whatever subject they’re teaching.” become much more visible as a member for future development which opens up of the scientific community. Visible to the before the imagination.” Max Delbrück (1906–1981) press, visible to your colleagues, visible to Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in students. Today, and ever since, when I Richard Feynman (1918–1988) 1969 (with Alfred D. Hershey and Salvador meet a student, I know that they’re looking Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 E. Luria) “for their discoveries concerning at me and saying, ‘That’s a Nobel Prize (with Sin-Itiro Tomonaga and Julian the replication mechanism and the genetic winner.’ And it actually makes normal Schwinger) “for their fundamental work structure of viruses” communication more difficult because they in quantum electrodynamics, with deep- think I come from some other planet. ploughing consequences for the physics Delbrück recalled the experience of “I had to accept the medal of speaking of elementary particles” winning a Nobel in a 1978 oral history. for the scientific community and have “It’s not like if you are a writer, let us spent now basically almost all of my career In January 2016, Caltech held an event say, and you have struggled for 30 years as a sort of visible member of the scientific celebrating the legacy of Richard Feynman, to establish a name for yourself, and all community, conscious of a responsibility which included a long and revered teaching of a sudden you get this bonanza, all this and an opportunity. career both at the Institute and through recognition. For many scientists that is not “I’ve been involved in some of the a series of lectures aimed at laypeople so. I mean by the time they get the Nobel biggest changes in the nature of biology, interested in physics. Prize they have long since become full the way we do it, and the controversies In a blog tribute titled “The Best professors, they have all the grants, they that have been associated with that. Teacher I Never Had” and written for have got everything they want. It doesn’t Probably the biggest one was the the event, Bill Gates remembers how mean anything except that they now get a recombinant DNA controversy in 1975, he stumbled upon Feynman’s lectures. lot of solicitations to contribute to that, and partly as a result of my work. We suddenly “A friend and I were planning a trip a lot of solicitations to put their name onto realized that there was a new capability, together and wanted to mix a little this, and it’s a lot of minor nuisances and the capability to cut and paste DNA and learning in with our relaxation. We looked minor ego trips involved with it.” therefore to move genes from one organism at a local university’s film collection, After receiving the prize, Delbrück to another, to modify genes, to capture saw that they had one of his lectures on returned to Caltech—where he had had genes, to use them in biotechnology, and physics, and checked it out. We loved it a lab since 1947—and continued his that was a monumental new way of looking so much that we ended up watching it research until his death in 1981. at biological experimentation and the

Rudolf L. Mössbauer Linus Pauling Physics (PhD ’25) Peace

Max Delbrück William B. Shockley Donald A. Glaser Richard P. Feynman Physiology or Medicine (BS ’32) Physics Physics (PhD ’50) Physics Murray Gell-Mann George W. Beadle Charles H. Townes Physics Physiology or Medicine (PhD ’39) Physics

1956 1958 1960 1961 1962 1964 1965 1969

14 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE SPRING 2016 them in the development of the gland. “During this work I became aware of the major difficulty in trying to identify cell types and their roles in both development and carcinogenesis. It became obvious to me that some major effort had to be made to gain knowledge of the genes active in cells; the determination of the genes present in a given species would be the starting point. I thus suggested the starting of a genome project in two lectures I gave in 1985 and 1986. These suggestions remained without consequences. Thus I wrote a paper to the same effect in Science in 1986. The paper had enormous resonance, at first mostly negative, but very soon converted into positive. In the end it helped the emergence of the genome project.” capabilities of our profession. But it also where I’ve worked, there are personal raised the issue of whether we were going satisfactions which are as great as that— William A. Fowler (1911–1995) to create some kind of monster, some kind the success of my students.” Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 “for his of problem, disease-causing organisms. theoretical and experimental studies And so the world got pretty worried Renato Dulbecco (1914–2012) of the nuclear reactions of importance about that. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in the formation of the chemical elements “I was part of the organization that in 1975 (with David Baltimore and in the universe.” He split the prize put together the Asilomar Conference, a Howard M. Temin) “for their discoveries with Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, conference that looked at this question of concerning the interaction between tumour who received the award “for his danger coming from the new capabilities viruses and the genetic material of the cell” theoretical studies of the physical and put in place a procedure whereby we processes of importance to the structure could slowly extend the capabilities to new In August 2005, Dulbecco added an and evolution of the stars.” organisms and new ways of doing science addendum to the biography he wrote for with safe checks along the way so that this the Nobel Prize website, reflecting on his In 1984, just a year after receiving the was done carefully over a decade. And I life after the award. Nobel Prize, Fowler was interviewed for think that gave the general public a sense “After I received the Nobel Prize my an oral history and talked about his then- that we were being responsible as scientists. research interest shifted to the study of ongoing projects. “Inevitably the biggest impact that naturally occurring cancers. I concentrated “So the current situation is that a people will have seen from my career is on a model system, mammary cancers really very elegant theory, which has had the discovery of the reverse transcriptase induced in rats, and I spent some time an incredible number of successes, predicts because that won the Nobel Prize and learning how to work with them. . . . that the current density of the universe stood out. I think that in all of the areas Using monoclonal antibodies against our on average is five times 10-30 grams per cells we could identify several different centimeter cubed, whereas our work on types of cells, and proposed a role for the production of the light isotopes in

Renato Dulbecco David Baltimore

Roger W. Sperry Howard M. Temin Physiology or Medicine (PhD ’60) Physiology or Medicine William A. Fowler (PhD ’36) Physics Leo James Rainwater William N. Lipscomb Robert W. Wilson Kenneth G. Wilson (BS ’39) (PhD ’46) (PhD ’62) (PhD ’61) Physics Chemistry Physics Physics

1975 1976 1978 1981 1982 1983

SPRING 2016 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE 15 the Big Bang gives a baryon density— that’s ordinary matter—of only five times l0-31. So there’s a deficiency, ninety percent, and one of the fashionable suggestions for what makes up the deficiency is massive neutrinos. By ‘massive,’ I mean something of the order of 1/100,000 of the mass of the electron. “That’s the problem that—when I’m able to do so—I’m mainly working on. If neutrinos are massive, that can also explain the solar neutrino problem, because if neutrinos are to oscillate or transform from one form to the other, which would explain the solar neutrino problem, they have to have a mass and they have to have slightly different masses. And Felix Boehm, by looking for oscillations on a terrestrial scale— a few meters—has shown that the mass differences have to be very small; but the “In addition to having what I had experimental results on the same system.” differences could be incredibly smaller before, then there were all these invitations “The common theme is seeing and still give oscillations in the great that really arose primarily because of the something which is a puzzle and trying distance between the sun and the earth.” Nobel Prize. to find an answer to it. . . . It goes back “But it meant for a far busier life, to doing puzzles as a child, actually.” Rudolph A. Marcus (1923–) and doing new activities that took a lot Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1992 “for of time made doing research on one’s Ahmed H. Zewail (1946–) his contributions to the theory of electron own a little more difficult. Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999 transfer reactions in chemical systems” “There are various unanswered “for his studies of the transition problems in fields that I’ve been involved states of chemical reactions using Marcus, the John G. Kirkwood and with, including some that my group and femtosecond spectroscopy” Arthur A. Noyes Professor of Chemistry, I are working on currently, so I am excited discussed his post-Nobel experience in to find the answers to those problems. Zewail is the Linus Pauling Professor a recent interview. For example, the field of ‘single molecule’ of Chemistry and professor of physics at “Life certainly became busier. I tried experiments has provided new challenges. Caltech. In January 2006 he added an and did maintain the research program In one study of a biological molecular addendum to the biography he wrote for at the same rate as before in terms of motor, we have applied theories about the Nobel Prize website, reflecting on number of people that were with me and how chemical and mechanical aspects his life after the award. in terms of doing things on my own. All within the system might work to data “After the awarding of the Nobel along, I continued to do some thinking from single molecule experiments to build Prize in 1999, I continued to serve as a on my own; I just enjoy playing with ideas a more detailed model of the motors. faculty member at Caltech . . . and as the involving theory and trying to understand To learn more, we are applying the same Director of the Physical Biology Center some experiments. method to another type of single molecule for Ultrafast Science and Technology

Douglas D. Osheroff Vernon L. Smith (BS’67) (BS ’49) Physics Economic Sciences

Rudolph A. Marcus Edward B. Lewis Robert C. Merton Ahmed H. Zewail Leland Hartwell Chemistry (PhD ’42) (MS ’67) Chemistry (BS ’61) Physiology or Medicine Economic Sciences Physiology or Medicine

1992 1995 1996 1997 1999 2001 2002

16 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE SPRING 2016 and the NSF Laboratory for Molecular transformations that use catalysts to Sciences. Current research is devoted convert a molecule, one into another one. to dynamical chemistry and biology, “There’s a new Hepatitis C treatment, with a focus on the physics of elementary and one of the molecules that is involved processes in complex systems. A major in that new treatment, which finally cures research frontier is the new development Hepatitis C, is a molecule made using of ‘4D ultrafast diffraction and microscopy,’ our chemistry. making possible the imaging of transient “And then another whole area which structures in space and time with atomic- I’ve been working on for a long time, which scale resolution. is sort of my hobby now, is developing “I have also devoted some time to materials for biomedical applications. giving public lectures in order to enhance “We probably have 10 different awareness of the value of knowledge projects going now that are developing gained from fundamental research, and materials for really interesting [medical] helping the population of developing applications. . . . It’s not biology; it’s what countries through the promotion of science I call plumbing, and we’re having a good and technology for the betterment of time developing these materials. society. Because of the unique East-West “The only thing going forward is cultures that I represent, I wrote a book that I hope we can have the opportunity Voyage Through Time—Walks of Life to the to keep going for quite a while and these Nobel Prize hoping to share the experience, wonderful students keep showing up, especially with young people, and to and postdocs. I’d like to have a chance remind them that it is possible! This book to do a few more things.” is in 12 editions and languages, so far.” Eric Betzig (1960–, BS ’83) Robert H. Grubbs (1942–) Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014 (with Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2005 Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner) resources at Janelia and the prestige and (with Yves Chauvin and Richard R. “for the development of super-resolved security of the Nobel, to throw the dice Schrock) “for the development of the fluorescence microscopy” again, and do crazy, risky stuff. Harald metathesis method in organic synthesis” [Hess] and I are working together again Betzig, a researcher at the Howard Hughes with our respective groups in this direction. Grubbs, the Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Only time will tell if anything comes of it, Professor of Chemistry, talked about life Campus, commented on the effects a which is just the way I like it.” after the Nobel in a recent interview. Nobel Prize will likely have on his life in “I really liked doing what I was doing a biography written for the Nobel website. before [the prize], so I’ve mostly continued “Being fundamentally a pessimist, doing that. I think my wife had the best I still have two fears. One is that the statement on it. She said, ‘We now drink distractions from the Nobel will disrupt better wine and we dance more.’ our research model and hamper our “I’m getting old, so I’m going to productivity, as it has already begun to have fun now. Part of what we’re doing do. The other is that I feel we’ve been is making better catalysts. . . . We’re too successful. also trying to define and find new “I think it’s my obligation, given the

Hugh David Politzer Robert H. Grubbs Martin Karplus Eric Betzig (BS ’83) Arthur B. McDonald Physics Chemistry (PhD ’54) Chemistry (PhD ’70) Chemistry Physics

2004 2005 2013 2014 2015

SPRING 2016 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE 17 where brain meets brawn Caltech’s athletes garner honors—for achievements both athletic and academic—from the Institute itself as well as from beyond its walls.

18 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE SPRING 2016 altech students are certainly known of Honor—who are nonetheless more for their intellectual prowess accomplished competitors in their own than their athletic aptitude, but in right and have garnered accolades for their fact the Institute has quite a history achievements both on and off the field. of educating and mentoring In recent years, three students— gifted athletes. So much so Christopher Bradley (class of ’17), Aditya that when Betsy Mitchell— Bhagavathi (class of ’16), and Jeremy Leibs an Olympic gold medalist (BS ’06)—have been named Academic in swimming herself—joined All-America honorees, in recognition of the staff as director of athletics, outstanding performance on the field and recreation, and physical education in the classroom. These students typically in 2011, she decided to establish a have GPAs of 3.8 or above and are Hall of Honor to recognize Caltech’s accomplished athletes in their conference athletic heritage. and nationally. During the 2014–15 school “We created the Hall of Honor to year, seven students received All-SCIAC celebrate and commemorate our student- Awards for exceptional performance within athletes’ achievements, both past and conference play, as voted on by coaches; present,” says Mitchell, “and to recognize eight received SCIAC Sportsmanship the contribution that participating in Awards; and 75 Caltech student-athletes the Caltech athletics program plays in received Academic All-SCIAC Honors our students’ personal, educational, and for earning cumulative GPAs of 3.4 or professional development.” better. Not too shabby for a school that In 2014—the Hall’s first year in also has one of the most demanding existence—eight alumni were named curriculums in the country. to its inaugural class, for feats ranging “While Caltech is a world leader in from holding Caltech’s career points research, educating 18- to 22-year-olds record (1,199) in basketball, to winning remains a core mission,” says Mitchell. a silver medal in pole vaulting at the 1924 “This requires a broad perspective with Olympics (one of three Caltech graduates attention paid to all parts of them as who have competed in the Games), to people. Nearly a quarter of our students earning All-SCIAC (Southern California are involved in sports at some level and Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) pour their hearts into intercollegiate honors in five sports. athletic competition, while as many as In addition, a pioneer award was 80 percent of the study body is involved given to Angie Bealko (BS ’96), who in sports at some level. This is reason played on the men’s basketball team for a enough to value their accomplishments and year before starting the women’s basketball endeavors in the athletic realm, in addition club in 1995; that club played a major role to honoring the invaluable skills learned in the creation of the Institute’s NCAA through the athletic curriculum in this program of today. A team award was also very public laboratory. We are proud of given to the 1969–70 wrestling team for our athletic accomplishments and strive to winning that year’s SCIAC title outright. build on them every day.” —AA/KN Six individual honorees were named in 2015, as was the first women’s fencing From left: Phil Conley (BS ’56) placed 10th team, which was formed in 1971—a year in the javelin competition at the 1956 Olympic after women were admitted to Caltech. The Games. Fred Newman (BS ’59) played four individuals included a cross-country, shot- sports at Caltech and, after graduating, earned put, and discus star; the most decorated numerous world records for his free-throw swimmer in Caltech history; and the only shooting ability. Karen (Close) Tanaka female recipient of Caltech’s Goldsworthy (BS ’83), a runner and a hurdler, was “one Track Trophy for sportsmanship, team of the best athletes on campus in her era.” spirit, and proficiency. Aditya Bhagavathi (class of ’16) has received Of course, there are many current many honors for his performance as a runner. students and recent graduates—those not To learn more about Caltech student athletes, yet eligible for or inducted into the Hall past and present, visit gocaltech.com

SPRING 2016 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE 19 By Katie Neith

Biologist Richard Andersen is using BRAIN awards to build on past successes and bring robotic-limb research to a whole new sensory level

20 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE SPRING 2016 he act of reading this article grasp a bottle of beer and bring it to guide the robotic arm. But that’s probably doesn’t seem like a to his mouth for a sip—something far from ideal, says Andersen, who complex task to you—or much he had long dreamed of doing. notes that if you anesthetize even just of a tactile one. Your eyes simply scan “We showed that the posterior the fingertips of a healthy individual the text; your brain processes the parietal cortex is an important source they will have great difficulty manipu- sentences and images to give them for gathering signals for the robotic lating objects. meaning. But if you think about it, arm that allow the patient to think just “It’s hard to change the position there’s more to the reading experience. about the movement in general rather of the object in the hand or to know if Chances are, you’re using your hands than in detail,” explains Andersen. it’s slipping or if the grasp is too tight if to access these lines—either by turning “As a result, we think moving the arm you can’t actually feel it,” he points out. the pages of the physical magazine, becomes more intuitive to the patient “We want to return that sensation.” clicking around with a computer and requires less concentration. It’s To make that possible, researchers mouse, or tapping on a tablet screen. also faster and more efficient.” will need to know exactly how sensa- But these motions are so ingrained, so tions of touch may arise in the brain intuitive, you likely don’t think of them THE NEXT LEVEL through electrical stimulation, so that as part of the reading process at all. This kind of innovative reimagining they can implant prostheses to stimu- Now imagine what reading a mag- of how to make a robotic arm move late those neurons. Andersen decided it azine would be like if you weren’t able garnered Andersen a 2015 National would be best to start with participants to feel those movements, if you had to Science Foundation (NSF) grant who do have a sense of touch. So he flip through the pages without being from President Obama’s Brain teamed up with the same colleagues able to perceive their texture with Research through Advancing from the University of Southern your fingers, or if you had to type and Innovative Neurotechnology—or California who had also worked with click without any feeling in your hands, BRAIN—Initiative, as well as seed Sorto to do a study looking at a subset using only vision to guide you. It would money from the California Blueprint of patients with epilepsy who have had change the entire experience—and for Research to Advance Innovations make it much more difficult. in Neuroscience (Cal-BRAIN) This is the challenge experienced program, the California complement by patients who, for whatever reason, to the federal initiative, which gave have lost the use of their hands or out its first-ever monetary awards last arms, and thus have lost their sense year to a group of researchers that of touch. And giving them back that included Andersen. critical yet oft-ignored sense is why Andersen is now using those Caltech biologist Richard Andersen Cal-BRAIN funds—designed to bring is working so hard to incorporate together interdisciplinary teams of a sense of touch into the neural scientists and engineers from diverse prosthetics he’s been helping develop fields for fundamental brain research— for years—devices implanted in the to take his team’s work to the next brain that allow a paralyzed patient level. His hope: to enable people using to manipulate a robotic arm. robotic arms to literally regain their Andersen and colleagues first sense of touch, their ability to feel an reported success of his original object in their “hands.” implant in early 2015. The team, led “Our patients with high-level spi- by Andersen, placed their prosthesis nal cord injuries are not only paralyzed, in the posterior parietal cortex, an area but they can’t feel below their necks,” that controls one’s intent to move rather explains Andersen. “The Cal-BRAIN than controlling movement directly as grant is allowing us to put sensors previous experiments had done. This on the hands of the robotic limbs, allowed Erik Sorto, a 35-year-old man with the idea that these sensors will who has been paralyzed from the neck communicate with a prosthetic implant down for more than 10 years, to use a to stimulate an area of the brain that robotic arm placed next to his body to could reproduce a sense of touch when perform a fluid hand-shaking gesture, the robot hand touches an object.” play rock-paper-scissors, and even Right now patients can use vision

SPRING 2016 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE 21 used limb movements to control the avatar limb on a computer screen. When the virtual limb touched a virtual object, it produced the sense of touching the object. “The idea here is that the subject is controlling the avatar hand movements with real movements of his own limb, but the sensation he feels in his hand is all coming from the brain,” says Andersen. “And it works very well.” By combining the hand-represen- tation maps and data from the virtual- arm avatar studies, Andersen and his colleagues have enough findings to implant a paralyzed patient soon. “We’ll be implanting the record- ing electrodes in two areas of the cere- bral cortex—in the posterior parietal cortex where we implanted Erik Sorto’s prosthesis, and one in the premotor cortex, an area in front of the motor cortex that’s also important for grasp- ing,” says Andersen. Additionally two arrays of stimulating microelectrodes will be implanted in the somatosensory cortex. “That will help us see if we can use the sensory information as feedback to improve dexterity in activi- ties that the subject performs with the brain-controlled robotic limb.” Since this would be their first attempt at providing sensory input to help a patient better use a prosthesis, there are a number of interesting challenges ahead, he says. For example, the team doesn’t know if stimulation Richard Andersen is the James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience at Caltech. through the somatosensory cortex implants will reproduce sensations temporary grids of electrodes implant- electrode produces sensations at a in the hand naturally, or if it will be ed in their brains to find the source different location on the subject’s hand, a bit like the cochlear implant, which of their seizures—a fairly common allowing the team to begin making creates sensations similar to natural diagnostic practice for epileptic a stimulation map of the hand. hearing—but not exactly alike— patients who have not responded to “So far we’ve had two patients that the users must then learn to drugs and for whom surgery may be in whom we could map a hand interpret as speech. an option. These patients are of interest representation using these grids,” “We’d like it to be as natural not because of their epilepsy, but says Andersen, who stresses that the as possible, but I have a feeling our because the implanted grids—which stimulation doesn’t produce seizures subjects will need to do some interpret- often extend into the somatosensory or any other side effects. ing of the signals, because even though cortex where the sense of touch seems Andersen and colleagues have the implanted electrodes are tiny, the to live—allow Andersen and his team also tested a healthy monkey’s use of stimulation will still likely activate to stimulate this specific area of the a virtual arm, represented as an avatar hundreds of neurons, which may be too cortex, electrode by electrode. Each on a computer screen. The monkey many neurons to produce a highly nat-

22 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE SPRING 2016 ural sensation” says Andersen. People of the brain is not realistic. We need keyboard or virtual piano keys. with the implant, then, are likely going smart robotics to do at least some of “We think an Android tablet or to need to learn how to use sensory the work.” They plan to combine smart iPad is an especially valuable assistive signals that feel somewhat less natural. robotics with neural signals that select device because so many functions are objects and the actions to be performed controlled by tablets now,” Andersen A MORE HELPFUL ROBOT on the objects in order to increase the says. “And all these projects feed into Adding touch to a robotic arm isn’t range of activities of daily living that one another—as we learn different Andersen’s only line of inquiry. can be performed by the subjects. information in one, we might be able Remember the story of Erik Sorto, Ultimately, what Andersen hopes to apply it elsewhere or to the whole who was able to reach out and drink is to bring this work and the sensory range of studies.” beer for the first time since he had -feedback prosthetic work together, And all of this possibility and become a quadriplegic? That was a providing people with paralysis from potential, he says, has come as a result feasibility study to show that Sorto a variety of causes—strokes, nerve of the awards he’s been given by Cal- could make use of his desire to sip injuries, peripheral neuropathies— BRAIN and the NSF, among others. liquid at his own rate. But he didn’t do it entirely on his own; he was assisted by “smart” robotics functions, The idea would be to get to the such as the use of video cameras to look at the location and shape of the point where the robotic arm is as object in three dimensions and use that information to help form the good as a human arm. correct grasp for the robotic arm so that its hand could grip the beer bottle. It also helped provide more precise the control and ability to return to the “Grants help to keep collabora- control of the hand’s digits (aka most rewarding activities of their lives, tions going and are beneficial to rela- fingers) and determined how far the like typing or playing the piano. tionships that have been built through arm needed to reach for an object. “Further down the line, with more research,” says Andersen. “In fact, “By blending the intent of the grant funding and other support, we our projects are examples of essential subject with these smart robotics, it would like to combine a sensorized interdisciplinary funding and collab- makes things much easier because the hand with smart robotics,” says oration. If all of us weren’t working patient doesn’t have to worry about Andersen. “The idea would be to get on these projects, they wouldn’t work. all the small details,” says Andersen. to the point where the robotic arm is We think that collaboration is going to It is to support this kind of as good as a human arm.” make a huge difference not only in our research that Andersen received— But, he says, there are a lot of hur- understanding of the brain, but also and is using—his NSF award. The dles. “Among them is the current size in the lives of the patients. And that’s smart robotics study builds upon of the system, which includes comput- why we do this.” Andersen’s prior experience with Erik ers, cameras, and other machinery,” Sorto and others like him, and brings says Andersen. “Another hurdle is that together the same team: researchers electrodes themselves need to be more and physicians from USC and Rancho biocompatible so more signals can be Los Amigos National Rehabilitation recorded in the brain for a much longer Center. The Applied Physics Lab at period of time.” Johns Hopkins, which does the robotic In the meantime, Andersen has technology, is also involved. come up with a bit of a workaround: “The NSF grant is allowing us he’s helping restore some activities to to continue our collaboration with our paralyzed patients through the use of robotics colleagues to move forward a computer tablet. In collaboration with the smart robotics, which is really with UCLA, Andersen has been work- how things in this area are going to ing with a subject, Nancy Smith, who work in the future,” says Andersen. has what he calls “really good bilateral “Hoping that you can control every- finger representations,” meaning that thing you want the arm to do with she can imagine finger movements to just the few signals that you get out type or play the piano using a virtual

SPRING 2016 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE 23 The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, which aims to elevate researchers to celebrity status, has put Caltech quantum computing and superstring theory experts in the spotlight. By Marcus Woo

24 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE SPRING 2016 hen the first email came, computers are relatively simple. counterclockwise spins provide the two Alexei Kitaev ignored it. They process information by turning states of a qubit. But regardless of the The subject heading said a bunch of electronic switches on design, quantum systems are extremely something about a physics and off, with those states—units of fragile, susceptible to stray particles award, but he thought it was just spam. information called bits—represented by that can bump into a qubit and ruin “Then I received another email,” says a 1 (on) or 0 (off). Quantum computers whatever calculation it’s trying to the Caltech physicist. “So I actually are different; instead of simple on/off make. These errors quickly accumulate, took a look and understood that it switches, they rely on quantum bits rendering the computer useless. was real.” called qubits, which follow the weird The first line of defense is to Real it was. Kitaev had won rules of quantum mechanics. develop algorithms that weed out the the first ever Breakthrough Prize in Quantum theory has been a errors. But these corrections are so Fundamental Physics, established triumph: it forms the backbone of difficult to do that the computer ends in 2012 by Russian billionaire modern physics, explaining everything up spending much of its computational entrepreneur Yuri Milner. And this from the LED display on your TV to muscle fixing errors, rather than doing new prize came with $3 million—three the MRI technique that doctors use to its intended task. Then Kitaev came times what winners of the Nobel Prize examine your insides. But the concepts up with a better solution—one worth get. Unlike the Nobels, the money are notoriously nonintuitive. $3 million. isn’t shared among the winners, For example, one of the theory’s He devised a way to build of which there were eight others. principles is superposition, in which error-resistance into the computer’s “I couldn’t believe that each person an object can occupy two states hardware itself, instead of relying on received $3 million,” Kitaev says. simultaneously. In other words, an software to correct problems after-the- Milner meant the award to come electron can be spinning clockwise fact. According to Kitaev, you could with a significant chunk of change; and counterclockwise at the same time. construct qubits with exotic particles his goal is not only to recognize While a bit can be only on or off, a called anyons, which are thought to scientists doing fundamental research, qubit can be both, a combination of exist in certain quantum systems. but also to raise their profiles among 0 and 1. Then there’s entanglement, Two anyons can share a single quantum the general public to equal the likes in which two particles can be so state, and maintain that state even of actors, sports stars, and other intimately correlated that one gives if separated. Their identities are so celebrities. “We have a disbalance in you information about the other— intertwined that if a stray particle the world today that the best minds are even if they’re separated by the length wanted to disturb the qubit, it would not appreciated enough,” Milner said of the universe. Entangled qubits have to perturb both anyons—which at the 2013 prize ceremony. become inextricably correlated with is harder to do, especially if the two Indeed, the big payout got plenty one another. anyons are separated. So by keeping of media attention. It was probably one Needless to say, computing the anyons apart, you can make an of the few times, if not the only time, with qubits is complicated. But it’s error-resistant qubit. that the topic of topological quantum this mind-bending complexity that Kitaev proposed his idea in 1997, computing—Kitaev’s expertise—graced endows a quantum computer with attracting enough attention to go on to the pages of the Los Angeles Times. its unsurpassed processing power— win a MacArthur Fellowship in 2008. in principle, at least. Since then, he says, physicists have A Quantum Future Today’s quantum computers are realized that making qubits from actual Kitaev won the prize for laying some rudimentary, only capable of relatively anyons may be too difficult. Instead, of the theoretical groundwork for simple tasks (e.g. factoring the number researchers such as Caltech’s Jason quantum computers—machines 21). No one’s been able to engineer one Alicea and Gil Refael are pursuing that researchers say can far exceed that’s particularly useful—that is, one ways to apply Kitaev’s ideas using the performance of conventional that achieves what a regular computer another particle-like quantum object computers. By exploiting the can’t. In a conventional computer, bits called a Majorana mode. complexities intrinsic to quantum manifest themselves as tiny electronic Such a qubit would be made mechanics, quantum computers switches called transistors, which of a thin, superconducting wire that could hypothetically do calculations are embedded in small silicon chips. traps a pair of Majorana modes, that would take regular computers Qubits, on the other hand, are really one on each end. To calculate the entire age of the universe to hard to make. something, the computer would accomplish. It’s not hyperbole to say Researchers have tried to change the voltage inside the wires, that, some day, quantum computers accomplish this by using different moving those Majorana modes around could change everything. kinds of quantum systems, including and thus manipulating the qubits’ By comparison, conventional charged atoms, whose clockwise or quantum states.

SPRING 2016 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE 25 This general strategy, which Kitaev Stringing It All Together helped pioneer, is called topological The next year, Kevin Spacey hosted quantum computing. While others are the affair, which also saw Glenn using it to design a bona fide quantum Close and Conan O’Brien—among computer, he’s focusing on the theory other Hollywood celebrities—in behind it, trying to gain a deeper attendance. And Caltech had two mathematical understanding of how more representatives: biologist these topological systems work. Alexander Varshavsky, who won Topology is like a fancier version the 2014 Breakthrough Prize in of geometry; it’s a mathematical Life Sciences (read more at eands. study of spaces and the properties of caltech.edu/plus) and another those spaces, which can occupy any theoretical physicist, John Schwarz, number of dimensions. Topologically, who won the 2014 Breakthrough a doughnut is the same as a coffee mug, Prize in Fundamental Physics. since they have the same basic property Schwarz and his corecipient, of having a hole (the mug’s handle Michael Green of the University forms its hole). of Cambridge, were recognized for In the case of quantum computing, perhaps the most fundamental kind topology comes in a bit more abstractly. of physics: their efforts to develop a With Kitaev’s proposal, for example, unified theory that describes all the information processing would happen basic forces and particles of nature— when anyons (or Majorana modes) a theory of everything. move around. Their motion through Physicists from Albert Einstein time can be depicted in what’s called a to Stephen Hawking have searched space-time diagram, in which an x-axis in vain for a grand unified theory. and a y-axis represent space, while time And while such a theory remains lies on a third axis. A pair of stationary elusive, physicists like Schwarz have anyons would be represented by two made tremendous progress over the parallel lines pointing up. But if one decades. Indeed, the best—and only— anyon moves around the other in the x-y candidate for a unified theory today plane, their motion would be depicted is string theory, an idea that Schwarz as two lines wrapped around each other pioneered in the 1970s. like a braid. By studying the topology According to string theory, the of these braids, Kitaev can explore fundamental building blocks of reality the mathematical properties of these consist of vibrating stringlike objects. systems and how they could function These strings have different properties, The Breakthrough Prize trophy was as a quantum computer. such as tension, that determine how created by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur While a real, useful quantum they vibrate. And those modes of Eliasson. According to the organization’s computer could still be decades away, vibration, like notes on a plucked guitar website, “Like much of Eliasson’s work, Kitaev’s work has been fundamental, string, are the elementary particles of the sculpture explores the common ground carving out a new potential path the universe. between art and science. It is molded into toward such a machine. Which, of But when physicists were first the shape of a toroid, recalling natural course, is why in 2013 he found himself developing the theory in the 1960s, forms found from black holes and galaxies onstage with eight other preeminent they had no inkling it could be a theory to seashells and coils of DNA.” physicists—and actor Morgan Freeman. of everything. Instead, they were trying The aspirations behind the to use it to explain the aptly named Breakthrough Prizes, to imbue glitz strong force, which holds atomic and glamour to basic science, were nuclei together. After physicists like clear as the evening proceeded like a Caltech Nobel laureate David Politzer Hollywood-style, red-carpet event. developed the theory of quantum “You can think of it as being like the chromodynamics to describe the strong Oscars,” said Freeman, who hosted the force, researchersBy tossed Kimm stringFesenmaier theory ceremony. “Only this time, you’re in aside. Except for Schwarz. the presence of some of the greatest He thought the mathematical minds on the planet.” beauty of string theory must hint at

26 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE SPRING 2016 some underlying, fundamental truth. Ooguri, the Fred Kavli Professor of predisposed to support it.” It took more tinkering—with the late Theoretical Physics and Mathematics As for the Hollywood effect, Joel Scherk, who was a senior research at Caltech. “He pushed this for 10 Schwarz thinks it might take more fellow at Caltech at the time—to find years, and then finally found a solution than a couple of awards ceremonies out what that truth was. In 1974, that convinced the rest of the world to turn theoretical physicists into Schwarz and Scherk realized that that this is the right direction.” household names. At the 2014 award string theory predicted the existence Suddenly, string theory became ceremony, Schwarz says, he and his of a particle that resembles the one of the most exciting areas of physics, wife, Patricia, were “both struck by the graviton, a hypothetical particle and physicists like Ooguri wanted to be fact that the Hollywood types showed thought to be responsible for gravity. part of it. Today, the field continues to no interest in mingling with scientists.” That prediction was a breakthrough attract interest from younger generations And the media coverage also seemed because in the efforts to unify the four of scientists. “There’s more optimism to focus on the movie stars rather fundamental forces—the strong force, than ever,” Schwarz says. But despite than the award winners. the weak force, the electromagnetic decades of progress, researchers still But for Kitaev, the biggest impact force, and gravity—incorporating have a way to go. One major reason for of awards like the Breakthrough Prize gravity was the biggest hurdle. skepticism, for instance, is the lack of in Fundamental Physics is on his Compared to the other forces, experimental evidence. family. “They don’t really understand gravity is a problem child. Physicists But many physicists are hanging what I’m working on,” he says. But were able to describe and even unify their hopes on the Large Hadron thanks to these awards, they at least the other forces using quantum Collider, located under the border realize his research is a pretty big deal. mechanics. But gravity, which Einstein of France and Switzerland. As the most “It helps me do more work because described as the warping of the space- powerful particle accelerator in the they have more respect for it,” he says. time fabric of the cosmos, wouldn’t world continues to ramp up its current “My wife is really proud of me.” play nice with quantum mechanics. round of collisions, which will run Any attempts at a quantum theory through 2018, Schwarz hopes it will Alexei Kitaev is the Ronald and Maxine of gravity gave nonsensical results discover evidence for supersymmetry, Linde Professor of Theoretical Physics and incompatible with reality. a theory that, among other things, Mathematics. His work is supported by the So when Schwarz and Scherk posits that every particle has a Simons Foundation, the National Science showed that string theory predicted supersymmetric partner (an electron, Foundation, and Gordon and Betty Moore the graviton—and thus gravity— for example, has a partner called the Foundation. they also realized it could be the selectron) to help explain why particles long-sought unified theory. But the have mass. John Schwarz is the Harold Brown excitement was short-lived. They soon Supersymmetry is a feature of Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus. ran into mathematical inconsistencies nature that’s necessary for string He remains an active participant in in the theory that would stymie the theory. “I would say the probability is Caltech’s Walter Burke Institute for field for a decade. on the order of 50 percent or so that it Theoretical Physics. Schwarz and his longtime will show up,” Schwarz says. “If they collaborator Green (Scherk died in do find supersymmetry at the LHC, 1979) became essentially the only ones this would be absolutely revolutionary pushing forward with string theory. in terms of impact on fundamental “It was viewed quite skeptically by most particle physics. It would pretty much of the theoretical physics community,” set the agenda for the experimental Schwarz says. “But some people seemed side of particle physics for the next to realize it was a worthwhile gamble.” half century.” Luckily, one of those people was The cachet of an award like the Caltech’s Murray Gell-Mann, who Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental had helped bring Schwarz to Caltech Physics also helps set the agenda, by in 1972 as a research associate. With bringing much-needed attention to Gell-Mann’s support, Schwarz kept this basic research. “It’s important that working on his theory. Finally, in the United States continues to be a 1984, he and Green found a way to leader in high-energy physics,” Schwarz cancel out the previously problematic says. “Public recognition of a field of mathematical inconsistencies, removing science is good. It helps make decision- what had been a major roadblock. makers in the government and so on “John is a visionary,” says Hirosi more cognizant of the work and more

SPRING 2016 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE 27 By Lori Dajose

altech undergraduates often spend their senior years casting a wide net of applications for graduate school funding. While all fellowships are prestigious, there are a few that are unusual in that they are intended to send students out for international experiences, typically before graduate school or even in lieu of it. The Marshall Scholarship and the Rhodes Scholarship, for example, fund students to do several years of research or study in the United Kingdom. The Watson Fellowship awards recipients with a yearlong stipend to pursue a creative, not necessarily academic, project almost anywhere in the world. And the Fulbright Scholarship sends students to study in a foreign country for up to a year, often creating a political and cultural connection in addition to an academic one. We talked to some young alumni who have received these somewhat nontraditional fellowships about the impact that these unique experiences have had on their lives, both during and after the prize.

28 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE SPRING 2016 ram Parveen Bilal (BS ’04) had India, to Maasai villages and tribes in a meticulous plan for her Watson Tanzania, to Irish step dancer clubs in Fellowship, at the time a $25,000 Ireland, interviewing everyone she met. prize—now $30,000—that allows In the end, she found that she still didn’t recipients to travel the world in pursuit have a concrete answer for why people of their “deepest interest.” Though she dance. What she did find, however, majored in environmental science and was that rhythm and a sense of body engineering, she had a deep passion movement was natural and woven into for dance—an activity that her mother, the fabric of life. with the weight of a conservative society “Dance is a very intrinsic, innate behind her, thought was inappropriate thing,” she says. “I set out with this mis- as a career. Bilal was determined to use sion of proving something, that dance her Watson year—from August 2004 to wasn’t bad, but the more you dive into August 2005—to provide an alternative knowledge, the vaster the unknowns reality to the taboos against dance. are. Whilst I can qualify by examples Bilal had always been interested that dance is innate, I can’t possibly pass in the performing arts, Bollywood, a judgment one way or another. That and dance, even while at Caltech. would be too immature and impatient.” She took all the film courses offered Through her travels, though, Bilal at the Institute and led various perfor- was able to arrive at an unanticipated mance-oriented activities, from public conclusion—that things in life don’t speaking to dancing. Nonetheless, always work out as planned. “The upon getting in with a full scholarship, Watson wasn’t really about this project, she attended Caltech “with vigor,” it was about the experiences,” she says. she says, to appease her parents and While she traveled and wrote and partly to play “safe”—until her very first filmed and researched, Bilal spent much research project, where being stuck in of her time alone. “I know myself very oving to a new country on a new a subbasement, redundantly stringing well, and a lot of that has to do with the continent was a familiar feeling for DNA strands onto semiconductor amount of time I spent by myself,” she Pradeep Ramesh (BS ’11). After spend- chips, made her realize that she was says. “The Watson is all about isolation ing his early childhood in India, he and made for a career with more human to -driven learning. And through that, his family moved to Singapore, where human interaction. She felt she was too I found that I’m a very free soul. I’m they lived for five years before moving to impatient to have an impact on others not rigid about ideology; I’m very the United States when Ramesh was 12. through science—she needed a more liberal. And, I’m bloody persistent.” So after finishing his bachelor’s degree interactive form of dialogue. So her In the years following her Watson in applied physics in 2011, it seemed senior year she applied to film schools, adventure, the effects of Bilal’s time natural to keep exploring the world. at the same time applying for a Watson, abroad reverberated throughout her life. Luckily for him, upon graduation hoping to use the year to learn more Currently, she is working on a feature Ramesh was awarded a Fulbright about the world and to challenge the film about Islamophobia and dance. Fellowship to live and study in opinions of dance she had grown up “A lot of this project has to do with Denmark, studying biophysics at the with. “I grew up in a family where dance the same ponderings that were the pro- Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. was frowned upon,” she says. “My mom pulsion for my Watson project,” she says At the time he began the fellowship, thought dancing was just bad. She was of the movie, called Forbidden Steps, that he had been a U.S. citizen for just very resolute about it, but I was also very she began writing in 2006 and has since under three years. determined to provide her with alternate put aside, resurrected, and rewritten “I was totally surprised when I explanations.” When she received the many times. “There’s something very got to Denmark, because suddenly prestigious prize, Bilal made it a goal to pure and personal with this film—the I was ‘The American’” Ramesh says. uncover the depths of complexity behind research I did during the Watson is “I didn’t really even think of myself the seemingly simple question, why do definitely going into the emotional as an American until recently. And people dance? moments in the narrative of the film.” suddenly here I was in Denmark— She spent months preparing, Plus, seeing the world alone a country of five million people, 90 proposing, and planning. The fellowship has given Bilal a solitary travel bug. percent of whom are ethnically took her through India, Tanzania, and “Every six months I try to take a trip Danish—and there was some sort Ireland, studying the motives behind by myself to settle back and reevaluate of expectation that I represent and dance: worship, social and religious where I’m going with my life,” she says, ‘defend’ my country’s ideology rebellion, tribal identity. She traveled “to try to live in the moment, whilst and policies.” through temples and dance villages in still reflecting.”

SPRING 2016 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE 29 Adding to that pressure, each year the Fulbright committee selects one student studying in each participating European Union country and brings them to Brussels, the capital of the EU, for a week of visiting parliament and NATO headquarters—and Ramesh was selected as the Denmark representative, a task that included conversations with EU justices, members of parliament, and ambassadors. “I felt very lucky to be selected,” he says. “You meet some very high- profile political figures. And here we were, talking to them face to face, off the record, and they really opened up. They’re not just political ‘figures’— they’re other human beings.” One particular experience stuck shape of lipid membranes, which form with Ramesh. “We were having the boundaries of cells. How did these dinner with the commanding general forces then shape the evolution of life of NATO, around the time that the on Earth?” indy Ko (BS ’07) always knew she military campaign against Libyan Though the fellowship is intend- wanted to study medicine. So when she leader Qaddafi began,” he remembers. ed to provide a stipend for scientific applied for and received the Watson “The general said that one of the biggest research, another big takeaway, Ramesh Fellowship during her senior year at challenges was the unit system— says, was the global perspective he Caltech, she designed it to expand her American fighter pilots would report gained. “Cellular life may be compart- love for medicine globally by applying the target distance in miles, and here mentalized, but there’s not such distinct to study the relationship between are the British and French and Danish delineations between science, culture, indigenous medicine and Western who are actively flying planes and trying people, and policies,” he says. “Science medicine in a number of countries, to quickly do conversions to meters. is not a pure little bubble—you can’t including Peru, Chile, South Africa, It was so funny. We’re on the same side separate it from cultural, political, Ghana, Benin, India, and China. but we can’t seem to come to agreement and geographical contexts.” “I tried to pick locations where on something like units or language. Ramesh’s winding journey through there was a site or particular kind of “I got to learn about the nuances the world has also been a winding medicine that showed the day-to-day of diplomacy, the complicated times journey through biology. After his work interplay between indigenous medicine when there really is no right or wrong on membrane biophysics, he went on to traditions and Western medicine,” answer—it kind of banishes that graduate studies at UC Berkeley, where Ko says. “There are countries where subconscious idea you might have that he wanted to model cancer dynamics the relationship is harmonious, like in ‘America is always right,’” he says. using the principles of evolutionary India or China, and there are countries When not meeting with ambassa- game theory. While there, he met where the relationship is antithetic. dors or traveling throughout the Mikhail Shapiro, with whom he moved Patients with a range of mild to serious EU, Ramesh did have a job to do— back to Caltech—where Shapiro is now illnesses have to do their own naviga- his Fulbright research straddled the an assistant professor of chemical engi- tion between the two worlds, and it’s intersection of physics and biology, neering—in order to start a new lab in always changing.” examining the basic compartments of molecular imaging. Ramesh is currently She had already taken a nontradi- life: membranes. “All forms of life on working to advance the nascent field of tional undergraduate path to a career Earth are compartmentalized,” he says. magnetogenetics by trying to engineer in medicine by majoring in mechanical “You rarely get naked DNA or RNA mammalian cells to be magnetic. engineering instead of biology. “I just floating around. I wanted to better This would allow researchers to control liked the idea of building and creating understand the physical forces that drive cellular function noninvasively using new solutions,” she says. And this compartmentalization and affect the magnetic fields. experience prepared her to boldly and

30 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE SPRING 2016 creatively tackle problems she encoun- tered throughout her Watson year. “Being a Mech-E student taught me to appreciate many ways to solve the same problem,” Ko says. “The human spirit is inventive, resourceful, and playful.” Her resourcefulness came in handy many times during her travels, such as when a computer charging cord snapped on a remote island in Chile. A replacement part was out of the question, so Ko fashioned her own repair using whatever was lying around, including the cap from her pen. After the Watson, the transition seemed almost seamless to medical school in New York City. “New York eter Buhler (BS ’12) has been on a survives at a pH of 2 (similar to is the best place to come back to, journey through every major geological battery acid) and provides an analog post-Watson,” says Ko. “I could get all epoch—by studying fossils, that is. for the martian environment; then my favorite West African foods just one After finishing his bachelor’s degree in to the Atacama Desert in Chile, train ride away, hear seven different geology, Buhler was awarded a Watson where photosynthetic bacteria live languages being spoken while working Fellowship to travel the world for a year inside salt crystals; and finally to Peru, at a hospital in Queens, and interact studying the origins and evolution of where Buhler observed examples with a diverse patient population life. The journey took him through space of recent human evolution and the while learning medicine.” and time—across six continents and integration of indigenous people with Though indigenous medicine from the Hadean era to the Holocene. modernized society. can sometimes be radically different A younger version of Buhler might “Getting my hands on fossils and from Western, the experience didn’t be surprised at all this globe-trotting. seeing the crazy ways that life evolves necessarily revolutionize Ko’s perspec- “I grew up in the smallest state of them made a deep impression on me,” he says. tive on medicine. “I didn’t really have all—Rhode Island—living in the same “Life is so adaptive, so varied, and can a fixed view of medicine or engineer- house for eighteen years and attending survive in so many ways.” ing before I left that was drastically the same school across the street for Bacteria weren’t the only organisms changed by my year abroad. It felt more fifteen of them,” he says. “I had never Buhler observed to survive in myriad like I was adding to a big tapestry of really spent much time outside of the ways—the scientists he interacted things I learned and wanted to learn. United States.” with around the world all had unique Every experience has been transforma- And yet, Buhler’s Watson project approaches to doing science. tive—from Caltech, to the Watson, was all about life that pushes the edge “In Spain, I was at an institute a lot to medical school itself.” of biological comfort zones. He was like Caltech—there was lots of funding, Ko is currently a resident in hunting for extremophiles: organisms and lots of instruments,” he explains. radiation oncology at the University that live and thrive in extreme, harsh “There’s a lot of freedom in that; it’s a of Wisconsin. “From my Watson conditions. His Watson year began in privilege. But in Chile, I was basically experience, I’ve learned that the patient Canada, where he dug up and examined working out of a shed with makeshift drives their own care no matter who dinosaur fossils; continued in Australia, equipment. Just like different life forms they are seeing as their doctor,” she where he studied stromatolites, bacterial can survive in different environments, says. “I’ve had cancer patients who waste products that harden into distinc- scientists can survive in different work- want to participate in both Western tive rocks; then took him to Taiwan, ing environments. And this environ- and non-Western treatments. It’s our where he experienced an isolated island ment shapes the way they approach job as physicians to keep our eyes, ears, ecosystem where 25 percent of the their work.” and minds sensitive to our patients species are endemic. Next he went and help them find their best path.” to Spain, where life in the Rio Tinto

SPRING 2016 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE 31 But whatever the scientific method, Buhler found one thing remained the same: people are people. “No matter where you go, there are people who will take you in and make you feel part of a community,” he says. “Each place I went, I had to explain my work often. But every time I did, I was just really excited to share my passion—the crazy ways life can survive and be resilient— with people who are figuring out their own ways to survive. No matter who they were, my work was a concept that they could relate to.” Sharing his work became a huge part of the Watson experience for Buhler, and he started a blog titled Geolog: A Slice of Science, Topped with Humanity. “It’s changed my mind-set from odd Gingrich (BS ’08) was interest- and are required to accept or reject just getting work done, to really making ed in a Rhodes Scholarship because the opportunity on the spot. Often, sure it’s accessible to the public,” says the program wasn’t exclusively about students haven’t had a chance to visit Buhler. “I want to help people under- the science he was hoping to pursue. Oxford first—which means that expec- stand how exciting and awesome the “The committee likes to select peo- tations sometimes need to be revised. world around them is!” ple who can make things happen out of “I only expected to do a one-year After a whirlwind adventure with nothing,” he says, which was a concept master’s program in theoretical chem- the Watson, Buhler returned to Caltech that intrigued him. “I like the language istry in what Oxford calls a ‘taught for graduate school. As a third-year in the selection criteria that talks about course’—meaning that you take classes, student, he’s not entirely sure of his people who are ‘not mere bookworms.’” do coursework, and have heavy supervi- plans for after his doctorate, but he has The Rhodes funds between one sion,” says Gingrich. A few months into a feeling they will fall into place. “The and three years of study at Oxford, the program, he realized that Caltech Watson made me more aware of the where students can use the grant for a had prepared him incredibly well. opportunities I’ll have after grad school, master’s degree or three years of a PhD. “I wanted a little more of a challenge, because my field is such a big interna- Students selected to receive the Rhodes so I switched to do a two-year research tional community,” he says. Scholarship are notified in person course, which is a lot more free-form.”

32 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE SPRING 2016 Gingrich wanted a change from f you had told Emma Schmidgall the “trial-and-error” experimental (BS ’07) as an undergraduate that she research he had conducted at Caltech, would earn a Doctor of Philosophy in so he applied his broad physics back- physics in 2015, she probably wouldn’t ground to the study of theoretical have been surprised. But Schmidgall chemistry at Oxford. “My master’s would never have guessed that she degree was about computational simu- would receive said degree from the lation methods for trying to predict the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, structures that certain molecules would by way of the United Kingdom. adopt,” he says. “During undergrad, I studied Gingrich liked the field so much abroad in England, and really I was Scholarship in 2007, Schmidgall ran that he went on to do a PhD in theoret- just so excited to return,” she says of into an old high school friend, Shachar ical chemistry at UC Berkeley. the prestigious two-year Marshall Raindel, who lived in Israel. They hit “Science is a rough thing to pursue, Scholarship that landed her back in it off and went on to date long-distance and it’s really easy to feel overworked the U.K. after graduation. There, she for the entirety of Schmidgall’s time and underappreciated. To that end, my planned to spend one year at Cambridge in the U.K. The flight to Israel was experience with the Rhodes was actual- University, studying physics for a only four hours, so she alternated ly really comforting and encouraging,” Master of Philosophy degree, and one weekends between traveling Europe he says. “There was a broad group of year at the University of Edinburgh, and visiting Raindel. After her two people from all sorts of disciplines— studying science policy. But ultimately Marshall years, Schmidgall moved law, literature, science—who were Schmidgall decided against the cold, to Israel to work as a process engineer validating what I was working towards, dark, and rain of Edinburgh, and she at a semiconductor laboratory, and even when it wasn’t entirely clear what spent the second year of her Marshall later began graduate school. I would achieve. It’s a nice feeling and Scholarship at Imperial College London “We’ve been married for three it gave me a lot of confidence heading studying nanomaterials. years now!” she says. forward in my career. When science “Everything I learned in my two The Marshall Scholarship seemed isn’t working out and you feel self- years are things I use every day,” she to guide Schmidgall quite naturally into doubt, it’s amazing to have the support says of the research she conducted in her current line of research, but the full of these people.” Cambridge and London on quantum effect on her life is yet to be determined, Right now, Gingrich is still information in semiconductor quantum she says. pressing strongly along the academic dots. She loved the subject so much “It was an amazing, awesome path as a postdoc at MIT. “Academia is that she specifically sought out similar experience, and I’d highly recommend a little terrifying—there’s no certainty research groups when applying for it,” says Schmidgall. “There’s this beaten that you will get a faculty position,” he her PhD. path at Caltech that so many people says. “But I try to stay calm about it. Technion had just the sort of quan- take, where you go straight to grad My experiences with the Rhodes and at tum information research Schmidgall school and never really get a chance to Berkeley have taught me that there’s no loved—and it just so happened to be in a stop and look around. So for me, having shortage of other interesting things in country that she had spent some time in. two years to do something totally the world to do.” Just before she left with her Marshall different was just fantastic!”

SPRING 2016 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE 33 the website for Caltech’s E&S magazine. Because there’s always more to the story… EandS.caltech.edu in memoriam

Eric H. Davidson 1937 – 2015

Eric Harris Davidson, Caltech’s doctorate from Rockefeller University Norman Chandler Professor of Cell in 1963. He worked as a postdoctoral Biology, died on September 1, 2015. researcher and then as a member of the He was 78 years old. Rockefeller faculty before coming to Davidson, a developmental Caltech as a visiting assistant professor biologist, was a pioneer researcher and of biology in 1970. He became a theorist of the gene regulatory networks Caltech associate professor in 1971, that perform complex biological a professor in 1974, and was named processes, such as the transformation Chandler Professor in 1982. of a single-celled egg into a complex He was a member of the National organism. His work helped to reveal Academy of Sciences and a fellow how the DNA sequences inherited in of the American Association for the the genome are used to initiate and Advancement of Science. In 2011, to Genomic Control Processes, drive forward the sequence of steps he was awarded the International published in 2015 and coauthored that result in development. Prize for Biology by the Japan Society with Caltech research assistant For the last 40 years, Davidson’s for the Promotion of Science. He professor Isabelle Peter. work centered on the purple sea urchin, was also the recipient of the Lifetime He is survived by his daughter, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, whose Achievement Award from the Society Elsa Davidson Bahrampour. range includes the waters off Caltech’s for Developmental Biology and the Kerckhoff Marine Biology Laboratory A. O. Kovalevsky Medal from the To learn more about Eric Davidson’s in Corona del Mar, California. St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists. life and work, visit caltech.edu/news/ Davidson earned his bachelor He authored six books, ranging developmental-biologist-eric-h- of arts degree from the University from his classic 1968 monograph, davidson-passes-away-47772. of Pennsylvania in 1958 and his Gene Activity in Early Development,

EandS.caltech.edu

Robert A. Millikan, Caltech’s first Nobel Laureate Associates East Coast Chapter Event Keck Observatory tour on the and Co-Founder of the Associates, with Albert Einstein at the New York Hall of Science President’s Circle Trip to Hawaii

In the words of Robert A. Millikan: “There is no date in the history of the California Institute of Technology more significant than March 9, 1926, the first meeting of the California Institute Associates.” Since its inaugural event with Albert Einstein at the newly opened Athenaeum, the Caltech Associates have played a vital role in the life of the Institute. Today, membership continues to provide unrestricted support that makes it possible for faculty, students, and researchers to engage in creative, discovery-based inquiry that seeks answers to the world’s most challenging questions. For more information and how to become a member, visit: www.associates.caltech.edu

SPRING 2016 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE 35 endnotes

We asked alumni to invent a Caltech-themed prize and to let us know who they would give it to, and why. Here’s what a few of them had to say.

Linus Pauling Award for IMPROVING Best Investment in the THE HUMAN CONDITION with Science, Future Award to Carl given to those who turn their Larson, class of 1952, for scientific or engineering work to his tireless support through broadly benefit humanity. the years of SURF.

A THINKING OUTSIDE THE The Ray Owens Award would go to a person DISCIPLINE prize to be awarded who strongly SUPPORTED DIVERSITY and for the most compelling plan to personally helped to improve equal treatment investigate any specific scientific question with an approach that of all at Caltech. spans several different disciplines.

The Infinite in Both Directions To Thine Own Self Award for the best published idea, Be True Award— or paper, or broadcast of the year for Carver Mead. from the Caltech community. Why is obvious.

OUR PLANET AWARD, recognizing key Lifetime Achievement science advancements related to earth Award to Mr. Tsutomu sciences for the solid, liquid, and gaseous Ohshima, karate teacher at portions of our home world. Caltech, 1955 to 1994, for bettering the lives of numerous Caltech students, faculty, & alums.

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