Caltech Magazine, Volume 86:2, Fall 2023

Table of Contents

Letters
Letters to the editor regarding the Spring 2023 issue.

SoCaltech
A monument for a mascot; A birthday for BBE; Winging it around campus; and more.

Solar Power at All Hours
Caltech researchers hope to harness the sun's energy and power the planet from 300 miles above.

Mars, Texas: My Year in Simulated Space
Alumnus Ross Brockwell is living on the Red Planet—in Houston.

The 2023 Distinguished Alumni
“a particular achievement of noteworthy value, a series of such achievements, or a career of noteworthy accomplishment.” The 2023 luminaries include an optics expert who invented near-zero-index optics, op- tical nanocircuits, and wave-based analog computing based on nanomaterials; a leader in obstetric and gynecological care who broke barriers at Caltech; a bioinformatics pioneer who managed a team that mapped the fly, human, and mouse genomes; and a trailblazing chemist who helped develop the cancer-treatment drug Abraxane.

Shape Shifters
How math explains the movement of snakes, jellyfish, cats, and ... astronauts?

Building Community
The First-Year Success Research Institute aims to build long-lasting bonds.

Walking the Moore Walk
On Gordon Moore’s philanthropic legacy and how it changed the landscape of Caltech.

In Memoriam
Gordon E. Moore • Stanley Deser • David B. Wales

Endnotes
On page 20, we talk with Ross Brockwell (MS ’01), who began a yearlong simulated Mars mission for NASA in June at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Besides friends and family, what would you miss most from your everyday life if you took part in such a mission?