Honoring Tom Rosenbaum

To: The Caltech Community
From: Dave Thompson, Chair of the Board of Trustees

As chair of Caltech's Board of Trustees, I have the privilege of expressing our deep gratitude for Tom Rosenbaum and his extraordinary service as the Institute's ninth president. Since his appointment in 2014, Tom has personified Caltech's mission to benefit society through research integrated with education. He expanded our intellectual enterprise, strengthened our connection to the broader community, and served as a constant steward of Caltech's legacy at the forefront of discovery, innovation, and education.

Tom has been a visionary proponent of multidisciplinary research as a means of addressing complex challenges, generating critical new knowledge, and launching new technical breakthroughs. The fruits of these endeavors include advances in translational medicine, such as work done through the Richard N. Merkin Institute for Translational Research and the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech; efforts to enhance efficiency, reduce cost, and preserve Earth's resources through the Resnick Sustainability Institute and ambitious projects such as the Space-based Solar Power Project; and the AI4Science initiative, which brings together the Institute's experts in artificial intelligence with scholars across divisions to apply AI tools to address a host of challenges. Tom's unwavering support for and investment in instrumentation has continually improved technologies, systems, and the environment in which research is conducted. This has ushered in a new era of astronomy—led in part by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), which first detected gravitational waves in 2015—and has positioned Caltech to lead the next scientific revolution in quantum science and computing. Many of these accomplishments were made possible by Break Through: The Caltech Campaign, a major fundraising initiative led by Tom throughout much of his tenure.

Caltech's prominence in local, national, and international communities has been reinforced under Tom's presidency. His remarkable ability to communicate the importance of science, engineering, and education inspires audiences ranging from elementary school students to Nobel Laureates. He established the Caltech Science Exchange to provide the general public with foundational information on highly relevant and timely topics such as virology, artificial intelligence, and quantum science. He has strengthened existing industry partnerships and established new ones, including with Broadcom and Amazon Web Services, and with academic institutions such as Carnegie Science, to expand nationally Caltech's reach and amplify the impact of discoveries and innovations seeded in the Institute's laboratories. In tandem, through the creation of forums such as the Ronald and Maxine Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy; in hosting distinguished speakers, industry leaders, and dignitaries on campus; and through his own engagements, Tom has encouraged vital discussions and enabled the broad social and political perspectives necessary to fully understand the influence of our work on society.

Tom advocates for and remains personally committed to Caltech's oversight of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He has encouraged high levels of engagement between researchers and engineers on campus and at JPL, resulting in numerous successful missions at the forefront of space exploration. Among these were the launch and landing of the Perseverance rover, which carried the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet; the Europa Clipper, now on course to study Jupiter's moon; and SPHEREx, which is poised to collect data on more than 450 million galaxies and more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way to better understand the origins of the universe.

Under Tom's guidance, and as a result of the enhancements he has overseen to the student experience, including increasing the Institute's investment in student scholarships, fellowships, and supporting programs, Caltech is better equipped to attract the brightest and most talented future scientists and engineers. He has championed the Initiative for Caltech Students, which has focused on nurturing tomorrow's intellectual leaders. He also has helped to ensure that the Institute attracted and empowered pathbreaking faculty, building on Caltech's unprecedented number of Nobel Prize winners, among many prestigious distinctions, and sustaining its position as a top ten global university by multiple international metrics.

In reflecting on Tom's tenure, we must take into consideration its historic context. Tom navigated the university through unprecedented challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent Los Angeles fires, which continue to affect the lives and work of so many members of our community. He helped to ensure the security and well-being of our own community while catalyzing research and innovation to help the public both understand and confront these hardships.

On a personal level, I have admired Tom's ability to function as a top-ranked scientist, an informed historian of higher education, and a constant voice emphasizing the importance of science and technology as a primary means of improving the human experience.

In 2022, at the request of the board, Tom extended his tenure as president, for which we remain deeply grateful. We enthusiastically accepted his offer to remain at the helm through June 2026 and the end of the 2025–2026 academic year to provide sufficient time for the trustees and campus leadership to conduct a national search for the next president. Tom has expressed his excitement for the coming year and will continue to advance the Institute's priorities on a wide front.

In the coming days, we will share plans for the search and selection process for Tom's successor, which will be led jointly by Caltech's faculty and trustees. This important activity will require input from the entire Caltech community, including faculty, staff, students, postdocs, alumni, administration, Caltech Associates, and board members.

In the meantime, please join me in thanking Tom for his remarkable service thus far. I encourage you to reflect on and celebrate the multitude of ways in which Tom's leadership has shaped our community and beyond in our coverage of his accomplishments on Caltech.edu.

We look forward to working with Tom as Caltech's president for the year ahead and retaining him as an integral member of our faculty and community for years to come.