Caltech Magazine, Volume 84:3, Fall 2021

Table of Contents

SoCaltech
A Different Take on the Turtle Pond • Three Questions for Mitch Aiken • Einstein’s Sailboat • Riderless Bicycle • A Summer of SURFers and WAVEs • Grace Liu (junior) • Alumnus Ardem Patapoutian (PhD ’96) Wins 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine • 2021−2022 Watson Lectures to be Presented via YouTube Live • Object Lesson: Feynman Diagrams in Space

In the Community • Origins
Universal Languages • A Planet Painted by Hand

The Break Through Is Just the Beginning
The $3.4 billion Break Through campaign has catalyzed the creation of new technologies, tools, and innovations to address global challenges.

The 2021 Distinguished Alumni Awards
Caltech’s annual Distinguished Alumni Awards recognize “a particular achievement of noteworthy value, a series of such achievements, or a career of noteworthy accomplishment.” The 2021 luminaries include a veteran NASA astronaut who helped lead a revival of American spaceflight; a chemistry alumna who invests in humankind’s transition to sustainable energy sources; a former director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who oversaw decades of exploration; and a university president who traveled a winding path from expert on the composition of Mars to academic leader advancing research, education, and equity.

How Water Works
Caltech scientists and engineers on campus and at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA, use satellites and seismic monitors to track the planet’s most important resource—water—and build miniature river systems in the lab to expand society’s understanding of the water cycle amid climate change, droughts, and wildfires.

The Art of Predicting Tastes in Art
A Caltech study shows that a simple computer program can accurately predict which paintings a person will like.

Is Space Pixelated?
The search for signatures of quantum gravity forges ahead.

In Memoriam
David Grether • Felix H. Boehm • Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr.

Endnotes
In recognition of the Break Through campaign, alumni were asked: What has been your most significant personal breakthrough?