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California Institute of Technology

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California Institute of Technology

Caltech Seal

MottoThe truth shall make you free
Established 1891
School type Private
President David Baltimore
Location Pasadena, CA, USA
Enrollment 900 undergraduate,
1,200 graduate
Faculty 386
Endowment US$1.3 billion
Campus Urban, 124 acres (0.5 km²)
Sports teams Beavers
Website www.caltech.edu

The California Institute of Technology (commonly known as Caltech) is a private, coeducational university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. A leading research university, Caltech maintains a strong emphasis on the natural sciences and engineering. It operates the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA.

History

Modern Caltech grew from a vocational school founded in Pasadena in 1891 by local businessman and politician Amos G. Throop. The school was known successively as Throop University, Throop Polytechnic Institute, and Throop College of Technology, before acquiring its current name in 1920.

The main driving force behind the transformation of Caltech from a school of arts and crafts to a world-class scientific center was the vision of astronomer George Ellery Hale. Hale had joined Throop's board of trustees after coming to Pasadena in 1907 as the first director of the Mount Wilson Observatory. At a time when scientific research in the United States was still in its infancy, Hale saw an opportunity to create in Pasadena an institution for serious research and education in engineering and the natural sciences. Hale succeeded in attracting private gifts of land and money that allowed him to endow the school with well-equipped, modern laboratory facilities. He then convinced two of the leading American scientists of the time, chemist Arthur Amos Noyes and physicist Robert Andrews Millikan, to join Caltech's faculty and contribute to the project of establishing it as a center for science and technology.

Under the leadership of Hale, Noyes, and Millikan (and aided by the booming economy of Southern California), Caltech grew very significantly in prestige in the 1920's. In 1923, Millikan was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics. In 1925 the school established a department of geology and hired William Bennett Munro, then chairman of the division of History, Government, and Economics at Harvard University, to create a division of humanities and social sciences at Caltech. In 1928 a division of biology was established under the leadership of Thomas Hunt Morgan, the leading biologist in the United States and a discoverer of the chromosome. In 1926 a graduate school of aeronautics was created which eventually attracted Theodore von Kármán, who later contributed to the creation of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and who established Caltech as one of the foremost centers for rocket-science. In 1928 construction began on the Palomar Observatory.

Caltech remains, to this day, a relatively small university, with approximately 900 undergraduates, 1,200 graduate students, and 915 faculty members (including professors, permanent research faculty, and postdoctoral researchers.)

The movie Real Genius was loosely based on events at Caltech.[1]

Student life

Housing system

House Members Color Slogan Motto Website
South Houses (Hovses)
File:BlackerHovse.jpg Blacker Hovse Moles Black γδβγ (God Damn Blacker Gang) http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~blacker/
File:DabneyHovse.gif Dabney Hovse Darbs Green DEI (Dabney Eats It) Fidelis et Gratus http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~dei/
File:FlemingHovse.gifFile:FlemingCrest.jpg Fleming Hovse Flems Red FEIF (Fleming Eats It Faster) Let the Deed Shaw http://fleming.caltech.edu/
File:RickettsHovse.jpg Ricketts Hovse Scurves / Skurves Maroon Prend Moi Tel Que Je Suis http://ricketts.caltech.edu/
North Houses
File:LloydHouse.jpg Lloyd House Lloydies Gold I Live And Die For Those I Love http://lloyd.caltech.edu/
File:PageHouse.gif Page House Pageboys Blue Spe Labor Levis http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~jrpage/
File:RuddockHouse.jpg Ruddock House Rudds Navy Blue http://ruddock.caltech.edu/
Other
File:AveryLogo.gif Avery House http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~avery/

During the early 20th century, a Caltech committee visited several universities and decided to transform the undergraduate housing system from regular fraternities to a unique House System, combining the qualities of regular university dormitories and the college system similar to that of Oxford and Cambridge. Four (south) houses (or hovses, so named for the inscription on the gates thereof) were built: Blacker House, Dabney House, Fleming House, and Ricketts House. In the late 20th century, three north houses were built: Lloyd House, Page House, and Ruddock House. During the 1990s, an additional house, Avery House, was built to accommodate those who feel the original seven houses were not suitable for them. Some students jocularly refer to the Undergraduate Computer Science Laboratory as another house, as a few spend most of their time there. The four south houses will be closed for renovation during the 2005–2006 school year.

Traditions

There are many annual traditions at Caltech, demonstrating the weird and wonderful creativity of its inhabitants. Every Halloween there is a pumpkin drop from the top of the Millikan Library, the highest point on campus, where the frozen pumpkin supposedly flashes as it hits the ground. And then there is the annual Ditch Day, where seniors ditch school but design elaborate tasks and traps at the doors of their rooms to prevent underclassman from entering. This has evolved to the point where many seniors spend months designing mechanical/electrical/software obstacles in order to confound the underclassmen. The faculty has been drawn into the event as well, and cancel all classes on Ditch Day so that the underclassmen can participate in what has become a highlight of the year.

Another tradition was the playing of the Ride of the Valkyries at 7 AM the morning of finals week with the largest speakers available in the hallway of the freshmen. The playing of that piece is not allowed at any other time, and any offender is dragged off into the showers to the drenched in cold water fully dressed. The playing of the Ride is such a strong tradition that the music was used during Apollo 17 to awaken Astronaut Harrison Schmitt, the only astronaut-scientist to explore the moon.

Caltech students have been known for the many pranks (also known as RF's) they have pulled off in the area. The two most famous are the changing of the Hollywood sign to read Caltech, by judiciously covering up certain parts of the letters, and the changing of the Rose Bowl scoreboard to an imaginary game where Caltech soundly trounced MIT.

Honor Code

Another unique feature of the Caltech community is the Honor Code, which states simply: "No member of the Caltech community shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community." This is enforced by a Board of Control, consisting of members of the community.[2]

Noted alumni

Noted faculty

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