Throughout its history, the California Institute of Technology has ventured into unexplored realms, defining new fields in science and engineering, and pushing interdisciplinary boundaries in the service of discovery. Caltech's commitment to the absolute excellence of its faculty, students, and staff—building a great university one outstanding individual at a time—has created an international presence that magnifies the Institute's size. Fearlessness in attacking large and important problems at scale, from the nature of the chemical bond to quarks and quasars to the structure of the brain, marks the cultural capital that aligns and knits together Caltech's intellectual community. We remain committed to setting the example of what the intertwined missions of research and education can accomplish.

Caltech arose from the vision of George Ellery Hale, Robert A. Millikan, and Arthur A. Noyes, who almost 100 years ago conceived of a gathering of individuals dedicated to "vitalizing all the work of the Institute by the infusion in generous measure of the spirit of research." Today, the Institute comprises approximately 300 faculty members, 950 undergraduates from 46 states and 26 countries, 1,250 graduate students, 600 research scholars, and 4,000 staff members. Institute researchers founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1936, and Caltech continues to manage JPL for NASA. JPL's 5,000 employees are tightly connected to the campus research mission, and together permit the Institute to push the frontiers of space and earth science.

Caltech's unflinching commitment to scientific leadership is notably expressed in the fabrication and operation of instrumentation that reveals nature in unexpected dimensions, whether through the world's largest and most productive telescopes, a seismological network of unprecedented scale, or the development of implantable medical devices to improve human well-being. Caltech receives more invention disclosures per faculty member than any other university in the United States.

Our eminence depends on our ability to attract the most creative, insightful, and impactful scholars. In this way, the research and educational enterprise is revitalized continually through a diversity of perspectives. I invite you to explore the singular promise of the Caltech community.

—Thomas F. Rosenbaum, President, Caltech
Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and Professor of Physics