Anneila Sargent, the Rosen Professor of Astronomy and director of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory and the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-Wave Astronomy (CARMA), speaks at Caltech’s campaign milestone celebration. Projected behind her is a rendering of what CARMA will look like once it is situated at Cedar Flat, California. Funding for the project’s relocation is made possible by contributions to the campaign.

A billion, and beyond

Having passed the billion dollar mark in the “There’s Only One. Caltech” campaign, the Institute brought together members of the Caltech/JPL community in Beckman Auditorium to share the exciting news.
Wally Weisman, the chairman of the Campaign Leadership Committee, announced that Caltech had reached the impressive milestone of $1 billion halfway through the five-year effort.

As good as that news is, he added that the job isn’t quite finished: there is still the matter of nearly $400 million to go. “There’s nothing to it,” Weisman quipped. “We’ll get it done one way or another.”

As of the beginning of the year, Caltech had raised an impressive $1,011,364,978 in donations and pledges. Of this amount, about $70 million will fund undergraduate financial aid and fellowships for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. The campaign will also support named professorships, fund research efforts, and replenish Caltech’s endowment.
Some $200 million will fund several construction projects, including the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, the Information Sciences Building, a new chemistry building, and a new campus center. The historic South Houses, which have provided students with housing for seven decades, will also be renovated.

Caltech president David Baltimore said that a $20 million gift from alum Warren Schlinger, BS ’44, MS ’46, PhD ’49, and his wife, Katharine, had helped the campaign pass the billion dollar mark. Warren earned his degrees in chemical engineering, and Baltimore noted that Katharine had worked in the chemical engineering division.

Among Caltech’s many supporters, Gordon Moore and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation received special recognition for their unprecedented and continuing generosity. Weisman noted that Moore and the foundation helped launch the campaign with two gifts totaling $600 million. The gifts have been used to fund many projects, including a new cryoelectron microscope, the purchase of imaging magnets, the Tectonics Observatory, the Thirty-Meter Telescope, and the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-Wave Astronomy (CARMA).

“We are encouraged to dream, and dream big,” noted Anneila Sargent, the Rosen Professor of Astronomy and director of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory and CARMA.

“I am not a donor, I am an investor,” said alum Carl Larson, BS ‘52, a member of the campaign committee and chairman of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships campaign. As an investor in Caltech, he enjoys dividends such as seminars and events, dinners at the Athenaeum, and rapport with students and researchers. “Caltech is the place we know, Caltech is the place we trust, Caltech is the place we enjoy,” he said.

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