Top: More zodiacal signs can be seen in the library’s light fixtures and on Heinsbergen’s stenciled ceiling; bottom-left, ringed Saturns grace the lamp chains in the hallways, and bottom-right, the light fixture in Robinson’s vestibule is an armillary sphere—an ancient astronomical tool—
decorated with the signs of the zodiac. Note the compact fluorescent bulb.

From the Birth of Galaxies to the Fate of the Planet

“The bandwagon of saving the planet from environmental pollution and from suffocation is well occupied now. Indeed, everyone is on it. Being on it is rather like being against sin, and, as in the case of sin, the universal practice is to point the finger at other people. . . .” Al Gore, 2007? Nope. It’s Caltech president Harold Brown in a March 1970 article in these very pages that also pointed out the potential of greenhouse gases to cause substantial climate change. Brown closed thus: “Unless Caltech can contribute something unique, we do not want to add another element to the near infinity of activities that have been generated by the universal enthusiasm about the protection of the environment. What we are thinking about is . . . an Environmental Laboratory. A reasonable size to aim for would be 25 to 30 professionals, plus part-time activity by interested Caltech faculty and students.”

Caltech’s environmental scientists must be pinching themselves—this 40-year dream is slated to come true in August 2010. Trustee Ronald Linde (MS ’62, PhD ’64) and his wife, Maxine, have established an $18 million endowment to create the Ronald and Maxine Linde Center for Global Environmental Science, which will focus on natural and human-caused variations in Earth’s climate and be housed in the former Robinson Laboratory of Astrophysics. When its current residents move to the new Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics in 2009, Robinson’s heavy, wooden doors will close for some 18 months as the building transforms into the Linde + Robinson Laboratory for Global Environmental Science.

Already renowned for deciphering the mystery of smog in the ’50s, Caltech established one of the nation’s first environmental-health engineering programs in 1960. The first professor was Jack McKee, who had joined the faculty as a sanitary engineer in 1949. He was followed by civil engineers Norman Brooks (PhD ’54) and Fredric Raichlen, biologist-turned-environmental-scientist Wheeler North (BS ’44, MS ’50), and chemical engineer Sheldon Friedlander, a pioneer in aerosol studies.

In 1969, the Institute added an option in environmental engineering science that granted master’s and doctoral degrees. Next came the Environmental Quality Laboratory, organized in 1971, which was not a lab per se, but a “think tank” that produced several major policy studies on California’s environmental problems. Its facilities were split between a house (since demolished) and a few offices in Dabney Hall of the Humanities. Twenty years later, Bank of America made possible the Environmental Analysis Center, an open-access, user-operated instrumental facility that that will relocate to the Linde + Robinson Laboratory.
So, how many engineers does it take to solve an environmental problem? Trick question. Even small problems slip into several disciplines, and big problems like climate change necessitate the kind of collaboration that Caltech is famous for. The Environmental Science and Engineering Program now includes biologists, chemists, earth scientists, engineers, and physicists.

These people are scattered through seven buildings—imagine what they’ll be able to achieve when they’re finally working in one. For example, John Seinfeld, who studies the physics of air pollution and explores atmospheric modeling, works halfway across campus from Tapio Schneider, who also researches global circulation of the atmosphere. Chemical physicist Mitchio Okumura studies stratospheric chemistry up Wilson Avenue from planetary scientist Yuk Yung, recognized for his work in stratospheric ozone depletion.

MacArthur Fellow Paul Wennberg, the Avery Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Science and Engineering, will direct the Linde Center. “Caltech is really good at providing the essential ingredients—great facilities, great students, and great professional staff. That’s what attracts the best and brightest scientists, people who can pose the big questions and solve big problems.”

Wennberg hopes to round out the team with at least four more professorships: a glaciologist, who would study climate-change-related ice melt and its effects on sea level; a physical oceanographer, who would investigate temperature change in the abyssal ocean (thermal expansion of the Pacific could make Palm Springs a future Newport Beach); a biogeochemical carbon specialist to analyze how biology controls carbon; and a researcher to look into how clouds and moisture change when the climate changes. Data from JPL, a world leader in space-based observation of Earth, will complement the program’s field- and laboratory-based research.

Bob Walp (BS ’51, MS ’53), a lead donor to the new Associates Graduate Fellowship in Global Environmental Science, agrees Caltech has a vital role to play. “There’s such chaos and ignorance in this area. That’s terrible when such incredible stakes are involved. Caltech’s wonderful interdisciplinary environment gives it an advantage. I don’t think it needs immense task groups and large amounts of money to make progress. It really just takes a few imaginative people. Caltech has been active in environmental matters at least since I first got here right after World War II, when the smog really hit Los Angeles. Arie Haagen-Smit, the organic chemist, made a big splash discovering the constituents of smog and developing technology to reduce it. That’s just one person—and the air’s cleaner.”

The Linde + Robinson Laboratory will set precedents in the sustainable renovation of research facilities in historic buildings. The elegant entrance, cozy library, and grand staircase will regain their splendor, showcasing elaborate metal- and woodwork, Spanish-influenced bookcases, and a beamed, stenciled ceiling attributed to noted muralist Anthony Heinsbergen, whose other commissions include the Los Angeles City Hall and the Hollywood Roosevelt and Beverly-Wilshire Hotels. Fresh air and sunlight will find their way to the depths of the sub-sub-basement, thanks to the repurposing of a solar-telescope shaft that punches through all five floors of the building, and basement dwellers will enjoy “garden-level” outside views as well. The project will emphasize recycled, nontoxic materials and win a gold—if not platinum—certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, and energy-efficient technology will curb the climate center’s own potential climate impact.

The Linde Center will draw talented young scholars, and Caltech will need to support them. To this end, Foster and Coco Stanback have endowed a postdoctoral fellowship, a graduate fellowship, and a “discovery fund.” The Caltech Associates have established the Associates Graduate Fellowship in Global Environmental Science to pay one first-year graduate student’s tuition and stipend annually.

Graduates of the new program will seed the field with scientist-engineers used to multi-dimensional thinking. As Provost Ed Stolper notes, “Few programs have taken this step of bridging environmental science and conventional environmental engineering—yet it is an approach we believe will be critical to training future leaders.”—AW