California Institute of Technology facts for kids
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Former names
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| Motto | "The truth shall make you free" |
| Type | Private research university |
| Established | September 23, 1891 |
| Founder | Amos G. Throop |
| Accreditation | WSCUC |
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Academic affiliations
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| Endowment | $3.5 billion (2022) |
| President | Thomas F. Rosenbaum |
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Academic staff
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300 professorial faculty |
| Students | 2,397 (2021–22) |
| Undergraduates | 987 (2021–22) |
| Postgraduates | 1,410 (2021–22) |
| Location |
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California
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United States
34°08′15″N 118°07′30″W / 34.13750°N 118.12500°W |
| Campus | Midsize city, 124 acres (0.50 km2) |
| Newspaper | The California Tech |
| Nickname | Beavers |
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Sporting affiliations
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NCAA Division III – SCIAC |
| Mascot | Bernoulli the Beaver |
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The California Institute of Technology (often called Caltech) is a special private university in Pasadena, California. It's known for its amazing work in science and engineering. Caltech is one of the top schools in the United States that focuses on pure and applied sciences.
This university started as a school for practical skills in 1891, founded by Amos G. Throop. In the early 1900s, famous scientists like George Ellery Hale and Robert Andrews Millikan joined the school. They helped it become a leading science center. In 1920, it got its current name, Caltech.
Caltech has six main areas of study, all focused on science and engineering. Its main campus is about 11 miles (18 km) northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Most first-year students live on campus. Students follow an honor code, which even allows them to take exams home! The school's sports teams, called the Caltech Beavers, play in 13 different sports.
Scientists from Caltech have made huge discoveries. These include breakthroughs in quantum physics, understanding earthquakes, and new ways to create proteins. As of 2022, 79 people connected to Caltech have won a Nobel Prize. This means Caltech has the most Nobel winners per student in America!
Contents
Caltech's Journey: A Look Back
How Caltech Began
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Caltech started as a vocational school on September 23, 1891. It was founded by a local businessman named Amos G. Throop. The school had a few different names before it became Caltech in 1920. In 1907, the part of the school that taught practical skills was separated to form the Polytechnic School.
At that time, scientific research in the U.S. was just beginning. George Ellery Hale, a solar astronomer, helped make Caltech a major science hub. He brought in James Augustin Brown Scherer as president, who was great at raising money. Scherer convinced Charles W. Gates to donate $25,000 to build Gates Laboratory, the first science building.
Growing Through the World Wars
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In 1910, Throop moved to its current location. Theodore Roosevelt even gave a speech there in 1911. He talked about how important it was for schools like Throop to train people for industrial work and also to develop great scientists.
During World War I, George Ellery Hale helped create the United States National Research Council. This group helped organize scientific work for military needs. He also worked to get more money for science research from private donors. This led to the Norman Bridge Laboratory being built, which attracted the famous physicist Robert Andrews Millikan in 1917.
Under the leadership of Hale, Arthur Amos Noyes, and Millikan, Caltech grew a lot in the 1920s. They focused on important scientific research. In 1923, Millikan won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Caltech also added new departments like geology, humanities, social sciences, and biology. In 1926, a special school for aeronautics (the science of flight) was started. This attracted Theodore von Kármán, who helped create the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). JPL is now a big part of NASA's rocket science.
Robert Andrews Millikan was like the president of Caltech from 1921 to 1945. He invited many famous scientists to visit, including Paul Dirac, Erwin Schrödinger, and Niels Bohr. Even Albert Einstein visited Caltech several times in the early 1930s to work on his Theory of General Relativity.
During World War II, Caltech helped the U.S. Navy by training students in aeronautical engineering.
After the Wars: New Discoveries
From the 1950s to the 1980s, Caltech was home to Murray Gell-Mann and Richard Feynman. Their work was key to understanding the tiny particles that make up everything. Feynman was also known as an amazing teacher and a fun, unique person.
When Lee A. DuBridge was president (1946–1969), Caltech's faculty (teachers) and campus both doubled in size. New research areas like chemical biology and planetary science grew. A huge 200-inch telescope was built on Palomar Mountain in 1948. It was the most powerful optical telescope in the world for over 40 years!
In 1970, Caltech started allowing female undergraduate students. The number of women students has been growing ever since.
Caltech in the 21st Century
Since 2000, the Einstein Papers Project has been at Caltech. This project collects, translates, and publishes the writings of Albert Einstein.
In 2008, a record 42% of the new students were female. That same year, Caltech finished a big fundraising effort, collecting over $1.4 billion for its programs.
In 2010, Caltech started a special center called the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis. This center aims to find new ways to create fuel directly from sunlight. Caltech also began offering online courses (MOOCs) through Coursera and edX starting in 2012.
In 2019, Caltech received a huge gift of $750 million for research on how to make our planet more sustainable. This was one of the largest gifts ever for environmental research.
In 2021, Caltech decided to remove some names from campus buildings. This was because some historical figures had connections to past organizations that held views not aligned with Caltech's current values.
Caltech's Campus: A Place to Learn
Caltech's main campus is 124 acres (50 hectares) in Pasadena, California. It's close to Old Town Pasadena, which is a popular spot for students.
In 1917, architect Bertram Goodhue designed the campus layout. He made sure the buildings fit the local climate and the school's focus on science. His designs were inspired by traditional Spanish mission architecture.
In the 1960s, the campus grew a lot, thanks to donations from alumnus Arnold O. Beckman. He and his wife, Mabel, greatly influenced Caltech's future.
New buildings on campus include the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Center for Information Science and Technology, both opened in 2009. The Warren and Katherine Schlinger Laboratory for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering opened in 2010. Caltech also added a large solar array in 2010 to produce clean energy.
How Caltech is Run
Caltech is run by a group of 46 trustees. They choose a president to lead the university. The current president is Thomas F. Rosenbaum.
The university is divided into six main academic areas:
- Biology and Biological Engineering
- Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
- Engineering and Applied Science
- Geological and Planetary Sciences
- Humanities and Social Sciences
- Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy
Teachers at Caltech are called faculty. They decide what students need to learn and what courses are offered. They also teach classes, do research, and help students.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a special research center owned by NASA. Caltech manages JPL through a contract with NASA. JPL does a lot of important research and development, especially for space missions.
Learning at Caltech
Caltech is a small university with more graduate students than undergraduate students. It's known for its strong research programs. The school uses a "quarter system," meaning the school year is divided into three terms: fall, winter, and spring.
Top Rankings
Caltech is always ranked as one of the top universities in the world. It's often in the top ten globally and top four in the United States. For example, U.S. News & World Report ranked Caltech as tied for 9th in the U.S. among national universities in 2022. Its graduate programs in chemistry and earth sciences are ranked number one!
Caltech was even ranked the best university in the world for Engineering & Technology and Physical Sciences by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings from 2011 to 2016.
Getting into Caltech
Getting into Caltech is very competitive. For the Class of 2026, only about 2.7% of applicants were accepted, making it one of the hardest colleges to get into.
Caltech used to require very high test scores like the SAT and ACT. However, since June 2020, they decided not to require or even look at test scores for a few years. This policy was extended but will change for students applying for the Class of 2029.
Caltech helps students who need financial support. They don't consider how much money a family has when deciding if a student can get in.
What Undergraduates Study
Caltech's four-year program focuses on science and arts. Students can choose from 28 main subjects (called "options") and 12 smaller subjects (minors). Some popular options include Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Physics.
Students have to take a core set of classes in math, physics, chemistry, and biology. They also take lab courses and classes in humanities and social sciences. First-year students take their classes on a Pass/Fail basis, which means they don't get letter grades at first.
Students are encouraged to work together on homework. Caltech has an honor code that allows students to take exams home and complete them on their own time. This creates a relaxed and trusting atmosphere.
Caltech graduates often earn high salaries. They also have a very high chance of going on to get a PhD, which is a very advanced degree.
Graduate Programs
Caltech's graduate programs focus on getting a PhD, especially in science, technology, engineering, and math. The most popular graduate subjects are Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Electrical Engineering, and Chemical Engineering.
Getting into a graduate program at Caltech is also very competitive. The faculty looks at a student's past studies, experience, and research interests. They try to match students with professors who are doing similar research.
Most new graduate students get a temporary advisor at first. Some programs let students try out different research labs to find the best fit. Caltech offers on-campus housing for new graduate students.
Caltech graduate students can use the university's research facilities. They can also work at places like NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Most PhD students receive full financial support through scholarships or by working as research or teaching assistants.
Graduate students also follow the honor code, which means they can take exams home.
Amazing Research at Caltech
Caltech is known for its "very high research activity," especially in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Caltech spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year on research. A lot of this funding comes from government agencies like NASA and the National Science Foundation.
Besides managing JPL, Caltech also runs several observatories. These include the Palomar Observatory and the Owens Valley Radio Observatory. Caltech also operates the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, which helps detect gravitational waves from space. The Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory studies ocean life.
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Undergraduate students at Caltech are also encouraged to do research. About 80% of students participate in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) program. Students write proposals for their research projects, and many continue their research during the school year. This program helps prepare students for graduate school.
Caltech also helps turn new scientific ideas into real products and companies. They protect the inventions made by their faculty and students. Many new companies have started from Caltech research, in areas like solar power, computer chips, and robotics.
Caltech Students
Caltech had about 987 undergraduate students and 1,410 graduate students in the 2021–2022 school year. About 45% of undergraduate students and 33% of graduate students were women.
Most students graduate from Caltech. About 92% of students finish their degrees within six years.
Student Life and Traditions
Living on Campus: The House System
Caltech has a special "house system" for student housing. There are four "South Houses" (Blacker, Dabney, Fleming, and Ricketts) and three "North Houses" (Lloyd, Page, and Ruddock). A new residence, Bechtel Residence, opened in 2018. All first- and second-year students live on campus in one of these houses.
In 2021, Ruddock House was renamed the Grant D. Venerable House. This was part of the university's decision to remove names connected to past organizations with views not aligned with Caltech's values.
Sports and Fun
Caltech's sports teams are called the Beavers. The beaver is their mascot because it's known as "nature's engineer." Caltech has teams in baseball, basketball, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and water polo. They compete in the NCAA Division III.
The Caltech Beavers have had some exciting wins, breaking long losing streaks in basketball and baseball. There's even a documentary film called Quantum Hoops about the men's basketball team's 2005–06 season.
Students also enjoy performing arts. The Caltech/Occidental College Orchestra is a large orchestra with students and staff from both schools. There are also jazz bands, a concert band, and singing groups. The theater program, TACIT, puts on plays each year.
Fun Traditions
Every Halloween, Dabney House does the "Millikan pumpkin-drop experiment" from the top of Millikan Library. They drop a pumpkin frozen in liquid nitrogen to see if it makes a spark when it shatters. It's a fun event that many people watch!
On Ditch Day, seniors leave behind tricky puzzles and obstacles for younger students to solve. It's a big event where classes are canceled so everyone can join in the fun.
Another tradition is playing Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" very loudly at 7:00 AM during finals week. This is only allowed during finals, and anyone who plays it at other times gets drenched in cold water!
Pranks and Rivalries
Caltech students are famous for their clever pranks, sometimes called "RFs."
Two famous pranks include changing the Hollywood Sign to say "Caltech" and changing the scoreboard at the 1984 Rose Bowl to read "Caltech 38, MIT 9." The most famous prank happened at the 1961 Rose Bowl, where Caltech students changed the flip-cards in the stands to spell out "Caltech" and other funny messages. This is known as the Great Rose Bowl Hoax.
Caltech students have a friendly rivalry with students from MIT. In 2005, Caltech students put a banner over the "Massachusetts Institute of Technology" sign at MIT, making it say "That Other Institute of Technology." MIT students then changed it to "The Only Institute of Technology."
In 2006, MIT students stole Caltech's 1.7-ton Fleming House cannon and moved it to their campus! Caltech students traveled to MIT to get their cannon back. These pranks are a fun part of the rivalry between the two schools.
The Honor Code
Life at Caltech is guided by an honor code: "No member of the Caltech community shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community." This code helps create an atmosphere of trust and respect. It allows students to have privileges like taking exams home.
Famous People from Caltech
Caltech has many famous alumni (former students) and faculty (teachers). As of October 2022, 46 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to people connected to Caltech. Six alumni have won the Turing Award, which is like the Nobel Prize for computer science. One alumnus also won the Fields Medal for mathematics.
Amazing Alumni
Many Caltech alumni have become famous scientists.
- Carl D. Anderson (graduated 1927) discovered tiny particles called positrons and muons.
- Edwin McMillan (graduated 1929) created the first new element heavier than uranium.
- Douglas D. Osheroff (graduated 1967) studied the strange properties of liquid helium.
- Donald Knuth (graduated 1963) is known as the "father" of analyzing computer algorithms.
- Astronaut C. Gordon Fullerton (graduated 1958) piloted a Space Shuttle mission.
- Astronaut Harrison Schmitt (graduated 1957) was the only geologist to walk on the Moon.
- Astronomer Eugene Merle Shoemaker (graduated 1948) co-discovered a comet that crashed into Jupiter.
Caltech alumni have also started major companies.
- Arnold Beckman (graduated 1928) invented the pH meter and started Beckman Instruments.
- William Shockley (graduated 1932) helped invent transistors and is called the "father of Silicon Valley."
- Gordon Moore (graduated 1954) co-founded Intel, a huge computer chip company.
Alumni have also held important government positions.
- James Fletcher (graduated 1948) was the head of NASA twice.
- Regina Dugan (graduated 1993) was the director of DARPA, a U.S. defense research agency.
- France Cordova (graduated 1979) became the director of the National Science Foundation.
- Notable Caltech alumni include:
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Nobel laureate Carl David Anderson, BS 1927, PhD 1930, discoverer of the positron and the muon
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Nobel laureate Douglas D. Osheroff, BS 1967
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Nobel laureate William Shockley, BS 1932, co-inventor of the solid state transistor, father of Silicon Valley
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Nobel laureate Edwin McMillan, BS 1928, MS 1929
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Nobel laureate Vernon Smith, BS 1949
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Turing Award laureate Fernando J. Corbató, BS 1950
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Turing Award laureate Donald Knuth, PhD 1963, "father" of the analysis of algorithms, creator of TeX typesetting system
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Turing Award laureate John McCarthy, BS 1948, inventor of the Lisp programming language
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Astronaut C. Gordon Fullerton, BS 1957, MS 1958
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Astronaut and United States Senator Harrison Schmitt, BS 1957, the only geologist to have walked on the Moon
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Libyan Deputy Prime Minister & Libyan Prime Minister-Elect Mustafa A.G. Abushagur, PhD 1984
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Qian Xuesen, PhD 1939, co-founder of JPL, "Father" of Chinese rocketry
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Arnold Orville Beckman, PhD 1928, inventor of the pH meter, founder of Beckman Instruments and the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation
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Gordon Moore, PhD 1954, co-founder of Intel, coined the observation Moore's Law
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National Medal of Technology laureate Carver Mead, BS 1956, MS 1957, PhD 1960
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Benoit Mandelbrot, MS 1948, Engineering 1949, father of fractal geometry, namesake of the Mandelbrot set
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Charlie Munger, studied meteorology at Caltech, investor, Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway
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Frank Capra, BS Chemical Engineering 1918 (when Caltech was known as the "Throop Institute"); winner of six Academy Awards in directing and producing; producer and director of It's a Wonderful Life
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Nobel laureate Kip Thorne, BS 1962, known for his prolific contributions in gravitation physics and astrophysics and co-founding of LIGO
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France A. Córdova, PhD 1978, Astrophysicist and 14th Director of the National Science Foundation
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Stephen Wolfram, PhD 1979, creator of Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha; one of the first MacArthur Fellows in 1981
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Stanislav Smirnov, PhD 1996, 2010 Fields Medal winner for his work on the mathematical foundations of statistical physics, particularly finite lattice models
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Carolyn Porco, PhD 1983, planetary scientist who led the imaging team on the Cassini mission in orbit around Saturn
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Nobel laureate Eric Betzig, BS 1983, known for his work on fluorescence microscopy and photoactivated localization microscopy
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Regina E. Dugan, PhD 1993, businesswoman and inventor, first female director of the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
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Ardem Patapoutian, PhD 1996, 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, known for his work in characterizing receptors that detect pressure, menthol, and temperature
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John Clauser, BS 1964, 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, known for the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt inequality in quantum physics
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Notable Faculty and Leaders
Many brilliant scientists have taught at Caltech.
- Richard Feynman was a famous physicist who wrote popular books about science. He won a Nobel Prize for his work in quantum electrodynamics.
- Murray Gell-Mann, another Nobel-winning physicist, helped discover tiny particles called quarks.
- Robert Andrews Millikan, a former Caltech president, was the first to measure the charge of an electron using his famous oil-drop experiment.
- Linus Pauling was a pioneer in understanding how atoms bond together.
- Charles Richter, an alumnus, created the Richter magnitude scale to measure earthquakes.
- Theodore von Kármán made important discoveries in aerodynamics (the study of how air moves around objects). He helped develop early rockets.
- Michael Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy, discovered many objects beyond Neptune, including the dwarf planet Eris.
About 33% of Caltech's faculty are members of the National Academy of Sciences or Engineering. This is one of the highest percentages in the country!
Caltech Presidents
- James Augustin Brown Scherer (1908–1920)
- Robert A. Millikan (1921–1945), a Nobel laureate in physics.
- Lee A. DuBridge (1946–1969)
- Harold Brown (1969–1977)
- Robert F. Christy (1977–1978)
- Marvin L. Goldberger (1978–1987)
- Thomas E. Everhart (1987–1997)
- David Baltimore (1997–2006), a Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine.
- Jean-Lou Chameau (2006–2013)
- Thomas F. Rosenbaum (2014–present)
Caltech Startups
Caltech actively helps turn scientific discoveries into new businesses. Through its Office of Technology Transfer, many new technologies have been shared with companies. These include advances in solar power, computer chips, and robotics. Companies like Quora, Impinj, and Xencor have come out of Caltech's research.
See also
In Spanish: Instituto Tecnológico de California para niños
- Engineering education
