Fall/Winter 2024 Events

With approximately 20 dynamic events each year in Southern California, Northern California, and New York City, the Caltech Associates program offers regular opportunities to learn about what's new and what's next directly from the people defining future directions in a broad range of disciplines. Event Q&A sessions afford the chance to gain even more insight. For event registration or information about becoming a member, please contact us at (626) 395-3919.

Guest policy. We welcome guests interested in joining the Caltech Associates to accompany a member at up to two Associates events before deciding. Members should always attend events with their registered guests. Please note that reservations for guests unaccompanied by a member are subject to cancellation.

Founded by Caltech researchers and now managed by the Institute, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a leader in robotic space exploration.

Our program will begin with brunch at The Athenaeum and a presentation by José E. Andrade, the George W. Housner Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering. On April 13, 2029, Apophis, an asteroid the size of five football fields, will make the closest "flyby" of an asteroid in recorded history. Professor Andrade will describe an upcoming mission to map the surface and interior of Apophis, taking advantage of a rare opportunity to study an asteroid in such proximity to Earth.

Following the presentation, we'll depart by chartered coach for our private afternoon tour of JPL, where we'll visit the mission control center and spacecraft assembly facility.

Burning fossil fuels has led to excessive carbon dioxide (CO2) atmospheric concentrations, a principal cause of climate change. Cargo ships contribute approximately one gigaton—about 3 percent—of global carbon emissions each year. Nature buffers CO2 excesses through a reaction with calcium carbonate (CaCO3), a compound found in limestone, chalk, and seashells. When CO2 and CaCO3 react, the result is calcium ions and bicarbonate, both of which are common in ocean water.

Jess Adkins, the Smits Family Professor of Geochemistry and Global Environmental Science, and his partners at Calcarea are working on chemical reactors that harness this reaction and convert and release carbon emissions safely and permanently into the ocean as saltier water. The technology may help speed progress toward a carbon-neutral economy.

The San Andreas and other faults in California separate two tectonic plates that slowly move in opposite directions. The faults remain locked for many years and then catch up in sudden rupture events perceived as earthquakes. These occasional fast motions co-exist with much slower fault slips.

Nadia Lapusta, the Lawrence A. Hanson, Jr., Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Geophysics, will explain how laboratory-derived friction laws and sophisticated numerical models can reproduce all stages of past fault behavior in remarkable detail. This research brings us closer to understanding earthquake physics and new ways to assess seismic hazards.

Enjoy dinner and an evening of stargazing with private access to the 100-inch telescope at the historic Mt. Wilson Observatory. Conceived by renowned astrophysicist and Caltech founder George Ellery Hale in 1904, Mt. Wilson Observatory is home to some of the most important telescopes in the development of modern astronomy.

When social sciences began to flourish in the 1970s, we could only guess how brains make complex decisions, such as economic choices. Today, in the field of neuroeconomics, we have increasingly sophisticated tools and methods to study the biological basis of self-control and decision-making.

Understanding neural circuitry may enable us to increase self-control and better understand, predict, and limit harmful collective behavior such as stock market exuberance and price bubbles.

Colin Camerer, the Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Economics, T&C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience Leadership Chair, and director of the T&C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience, will discuss findings and tools such as brain imaging using fMRI and eye tracking that records what people are looking at and their biological reactions.

Economic models often assume rational decisions, but a large body of evidence suggests that humans systematically deviate from benchmarks. These deviations can have significant consequences, such as discrimination.

Professor of Economics and William H. Hurt Scholar Kirby Nielsen will explain how a multidisciplinary approach is crucial for understanding human behavior. Through the interplay between decision theory and empirical evidence—and by combining tools from economics, psychology, biology, and neuroscience—we gain insight into individuals' perceptions of uncertainty and the fundamental suppositions underlying how we model human decision-making. Professor Nielsen's research aims to learn about these departures from rationality to identify ways to help people make better decisions and improve policy recommendations.

The world is made of molecules. Any invention that involves the synthesis of a molecule, whether it be a new drug to treat cancer or a new designer molecule for an LED screen, has synthetic chemistry at its core. As such, synthetic chemistry is a common thread between disparate fields such as medicine, materials science, and energy research.

Sarah Reisman, Bren Professor of Chemistry and the Norman Davidson Leadership Chair in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, is working on new methods to make small molecules with big impact. She will discuss current investigations in synthetic organic chemistry and describe how this research is integral to discovering and creating new medicines.

Our annual holiday luncheon is one of our most popular events and an opportunity to gather with faculty, friends, and fellow Associates in the cheerful ambiance of The Athenaeum's festive decor.

This year, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, the Rea A. and Lela G. Axline Professor of Business Economics and director of the Ronald and Maxine Linde Institute of Economic and Management Sciences, asks, "Why Do Entrepreneurs Want Control?" From Elihu Thomson and Herbert Dow in the late nineteenth century to Steve Jobs a hundred years later, many entrepreneurs have been stymied by their investors. Professor Rosenthal's presentation will explore why investors and entrepreneurs often clash and, thus, why control matters.

His research focuses on two critical variables that affect control: the cost of capital and legal rules that enable entrepreneurs to prevail even when, under "one-share, one-vote" governance, power would rest with their investors.

A fundamental goal of genetics is the ability to look at the sequence of a genome—the DNA instructions found in cells—and understand the differences between species and individuals. The better we become at "reading" the genome, the better we can understand fundamental biology, address genetic diseases to improve human, animal, and plant health, and ultimately "write" genomes for biotechnology applications.

Paul Sternberg, Bren Professor of Biology and the William K. Bowes Jr. Leadership Chair in the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, will share his view of the state of the art in genetics. He will discuss how genome analysis, systematic genome editing, and data science, such as artificial intelligence, coupled with conceptual understanding (the old-fashioned "feel for the organism"), work together to allow unprecedented progress in genetics and its applications.