Astrophysicist and author Ray Jayawardhana began his tenure as the 10th president of Caltech on July 1, where he wants to encourage a culture of risk-taking and ideas for the renowned institute.
In his new role after serving as provost of Johns Hopkins University, Jayawardhana also oversees the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Caltech manages for NASA.
His road to Caltech is fueled by success as the former dean at College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University, in addition to a roster of initiatives in other areas.
“One aspect I’m particularly excited about is expanding the kinds of investments that allow faculty and students to pursue blue-sky, high-risk ideas that wouldn’t otherwise take flight,” he said in an interview for Caltech magazine.
Jayawardhana will draw on the experience of working to launch public engagement and funding programs at Cornell.
“He believes deeply that the knowledge we create should be shared widely, ensuring that discovery ignites public imagination and serves as a catalyst for broader progress,” Board of Trustees Chair David W. Thompson said in a statement. “He will be a forceful ambassador for Caltech and for the critical and essential role that this community plays in advancing fundamental science, in training the next generation of leaders, and in further extending and accelerating humanity’s reach across the solar system and beyond.”
This full-circle moment for the man who as a teenager in Sri Lanka wrote to JPL asking for photographs from the Voyager missions.
It was an early engagement in science and public communication for the fledgling scientist, who is no stranger to the institute.
He first arrived at Caltech as a graduate student for the Michelson Summer School – now the Sagan Summer Workshop.
Jayawardhana begins his tenure on the heels of outgoing former President Thomas Rosenbaum’s tenure. His planned departure ended this summer after 12 years in office.
For Rosenbaum, who will remain as a member of the faculty, he leaves touting a doubling of Caltech’s endowment and a capital campaign that raised $3.4 billion from more than 14,000 donors. And in a time of increasing affordability issues in college enrollment, he started programs to make programs more affordable, even as the campus looked to strengthen connections with JPL.
As he came on board, Jayawardhana expressed the appeal of Caltech’s wide-ranging commitment to excellence.
“What I also find remarkable—and this is something that becomes clearer the closer you look—is the sheer scale of impact that a relatively small, highly engaged community has had on science and on humanity,” Jayawardhana told the campus magazine. “It results from the intensity of focus, the caliber of the people, and the culture that takes seriously the idea that the questions you choose to pursue matter as much as how vigorously you pursue them.”
Jayawardhana will oversee the institute’s future connection to JPL.
The 167-acre Caltech, which is located in a leafy section south of downtown Pasadena, has managed JPL’s campus in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains for nearly seven decades. (Caltech’s roots date back even further, to when the lab was founded by university faculty and students in 1936.)
But NASA announced plans last month to see if there’s another bidder who can deliver more bang for the buck, just as Caltech approaches the tail end of a 10-year, $30 billion contract that expires in 2028.
If Caltech is replaced as a sole-source contractor, it would represent the first time NASA has selected a different contractor for the job since it was set up in response to the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik in 1957, igniting the space race.
In his first letter to the community, Jayawardhana voiced awe and appreciation from conversations with more than 220 Caltech stakeholders over the past six months.
He also pointed to the ways his own continued research presence influences how he supports an institution’s researchers.
“Staying active in research during my years as a dean and provost has been important to me,” he said. “It keeps me intellectually engaged and personally inspired.”
The acclaimed academic and higher education leader has also authored several popular books and articles for news outlets.
“I inherited a love of writing and language from my late father,” he said. “The summer after my first year [of college], I had an internship at The Economist in London. That experience showed me that the best writing demands the same intellectual vigor and clarity of thought as the science itself.”
Equipped with a broad understanding of the various considerations shaping the success of Caltech’s mission, Jayawardhana held a pragmatic confidence in tackling challenges ahead.
“The funding and policy landscape for science is shifting, and Caltech and JPL have felt those pressures too,” he said. “I intend to be a fierce advocate for the Institute’s mission, for the people who advance it, and for the case that fundamental discovery and applied innovation are not in tension, that they reinforce each other.”
Staff Writer Patt Maio contributed to this article. Ellen Wang is an intern with the Southern California News Group through a partnership with the Los Angeles chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association.