Seminar Day weekend packed with activity

An eventful four days await Caltech graduates at the Alumni Reunion Weekend and 66th Annual Seminar Day. Taking place on Thursday, May 15, through Sunday, May 18, the class reunions and related activities include a myriad of academic lectures and presentations by faculty, researchers, and students, as well as social events.

Throughout the weekend, alums celebrating their first-year reunion and those from every fifth year (fifth through 65th year) can attend various tours and gatherings. A program listing all events and lecturers is available through the Caltech Alumni Association and at www.its.caltech.edu/~alumni/reunions.htm.

Seminar Day is scheduled for Saturday, May 17. Over the course of five sessions, Caltech faculty members and JPL researchers will expound on their latest research. Sprinkled among these seminars will be the Everhart Lecture Series, delivered by graduate students, and presentations by the winners of the undergraduate Perpall SURF Speaker Awards.

The day will include the presentation of the Distinguished Alumni Awards, beginning at 11 a.m. in Beckman Auditorium. Initiated for Caltech’s 75th anniversary in 1966, the award recognizes extraordinary achievement in business, community, and professional life and is the highest honor that the Institute bestows on its graduates.

This year’s Distinguished Alumni Awards recipients are Fernando Corbató (BS ‘50, physics), professor emeritus in the department of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT; James Edward Gunn (PhD ‘66, astronomy and physics), Higgins Professor of Astronomy at Princeton University Observatory; Michael Hunkapiller (PhD ‘74, chemistry), senior vice president of Applera Corporation and president of Applied Biosystems Group; Alan Lightman (MS ‘73, PhD ‘74, physics), MIT professor and novelist; and Michael Malin (PhD ‘76, planetary science and geology), president and chief scientist of Malin Space Science Systems, Inc.

The awards presentation will be followed by an address by Ed Stone, Morrisroe Professor of Physics and a former JPL director, who will discuss “Voyager’s Search for the Edge of Interstellar Space.”

The Alumni Reunion Weekend will be enhanced by special events, including the daylong 9th Annual Industry Day at the Center for Neuromorphic Systems Engineering on Thursday, May 15, in Beckman Institute auditorium. The theme is Machine Awareness and Learning; speakers will make presentations on such subjects as human-machine interfaces and neuroprosthetics, among others.

All alumni are invited to a spring concert on Friday, May 16, at 8 p.m. Caltech’s Glee Clubs will be joined by the Caltech-Occidental Symphony Orchestra in Ramo Auditorium.

A brunch for alumni, hosted by the Caltech Y, will take place on Sunday, May 18, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Center for Student Services, 414 South Holliston Avenue.

During their visit to their alma mater, alumni will be able to enjoy a 10 percent discount on all Caltech insignia merchandise at the bookstore, which will be open on Seminar Day from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Reservations for the Alumni Reunion Weekend must be received by Monday, May 5; walk-in registration will be available, for Seminar Day only, on Saturday, May 17. For further details, contact the Alumni Association at (626) 395-8364, 395-8366, or reunions@alumni.caltech.edu.
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