Caltech Newsmakers

Articles, profiles, and discussion of Caltech faculty and research in major news outlets.

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May 3, 2013

  • Discovery News gets an update on the Mars Curiosity mission from John Grotzinger.
     
  • Andrew Ingersoll is quoted in a Space Daily article about observations made by the Cassini spacecraft.
     
  • The Pasadena Sun covers the naming of three Caltech faculty members—Mike Brown, Ken Farley, and John Seinfeld—to the National Academy of Sciences.
     
  • A TIME.com report on atmospheric CO2 levels highlights a measurement tool developed at Caltech half a century ago.
     

April 25, 2013

  • A recent episode of the CNN Ideas series provides a look into the lab of Frances Arnold with a focus on directed evolution and the innovative ways in which it can be used to address our renewable energy needs.
  • John Grotzinger is featured in an article in The New Yorker about the Mars Curiosity mission.
  • Technology Review features the high-efficiency solar research going on in Harry Atwater's lab in "10 Breakthrough Technologies 2013."
  • Stephen Quartz writes about the neuroscience of heroism in a post-Boston Marathon bombing column in The New York Times.
  • The San Gabriel Valley Tribune looks at sustainable energy innovations from the labs of Harry Atwater, Harry Gray, and Sossina Haile.
  • Engineering.com discusses John Dabiri's new approach to wind energy and his research into the benefits of vertical-axis wind turbines.
  • KPCC's Off Ramp program features journalist Patt Morrison's reflections on her visit to Caltech to meet Stephen Hawking.
     

April 19, 2013

  • Caltech and JPL experts help The New York Times create a quiz about exoplanets.
     
  • Anneila Sargent is profiled by the UK's Independent.
     
  • Space.com, Discovery News, the Los Angeles Times, the Pasadena Star-News, and many other media outlets recap Stephen Hawking's April 16 public lecture in Caltech's Beckman Auditorium. Noted journalist Patt Morrison also discusses his visit to Caltech in an opinion piece.
     
  • Space.com quotes Charles Beichman in a story about four newly discovered exoplanets and the work of determining their atmospheric compositions.
     
  • The Pasadena Star-News details the history of a proposed plan to intercept an asteroid, which originated at Caltech's Keck Institute for Space Studies.
     
  • Discovery News and others report on a significant step forward for the Thirty Meter Telescope.

April 12, 2013

  • John Dabiri's wind turbine research is profiled in Technology Review.
     
  • The New York Times cites a report by the Keck Institute for Space Studies in an article about the feasibility of a mission to retrieve an asteroid.
     
  • The Boston Globe quotes Michael Roukes in an article about President Obama's brain-mapping initiative.
     
  • ABC 7 visits Caltech to learn about the mathematical odds of winning the Powerball lottery, and interviews professor emeritus Gary Lorden.
     

April 5, 2013

  • Space.com and Huffington Post cover the Caltech Space Challenge, including quotes from the student participants and a very special guest, astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
     
  • Discovery News quotes Mike Brown in a story about a possible future mission to Jupiter's moon Europa.
     
  • A New York Times story on President Obama's proposed brain-mapping initiative includes a quote from Michael Roukes.

March 29, 2013

  • TIME reports on Mike Brown's research into the ocean on Jupiter's moon Europa.
     
  • Technology Review covers Ali Hajimiri's self-healing microchip innovation.
     
  • Space.com, the Pasadena Star-News, and the Pasadena Sun cover last week's Caltech Space Challenge in which 32 international students formed two teams in a competition to design a mission to a Martian moon.
     

March 22, 2013

  • The Los Angeles Times, KPCC FM, and TIME talk with Ed Stone to get a progress report on the Voyager I spacecraft as it nears interstellar space.
     
  • The Pasadena Sun highlights Steve Mayo's appointment to the National Science Board.

March 15, 2013

March 8, 2013

March 1, 2013

  • Researchers led by Fiona Harrison using the NuSTAR space telescope have for the first time clocked the spin of a supermassive black hole at the center of a distant galaxy. Discovery News, Space.com, and the Los Angeles Times were among the news outlets covering the findings.

  • John Preskill explains the science of quantum computing in this video from the National Science Foundation made available through NBC. 

  • Huffington Post's "Talk Nerdy to Me" interviews Frances Arnold about directed evolution and how she uses the technique to make biofuels.

  • In the closing section of a Big Picture Science radio program about facial recognition, beginning at the 43:00 mark, Pietro Perona talks about computers seeing and recognizing objects.  

  • Scientific American quotes Michael Roukes in an article about the national effort to map the neural pathways of the brain. The story is now available on the Nature website.

February 22, 2013

  • After Earth's close encounter with an asteroid, Paul Dimotakis talks about the science of asteroid retrieval in articles on Space.com, Discovery News, Los Angeles Times, and Reuters. 
  • John Dabiri's bioinspired research into wind turbine placement is featured in Sierra Magazine.

  • President Jean-Lou Chameau's announcement that he is leaving Caltech is the subject of several articles, including this piece in the Los Angeles Times.

February 15, 2013

  • New Scientist discusses the research of Sarkis Mazmanian and Paul Patterson and the potential links between autism and gut bacteria.

February 8, 2013

February 1, 2013

January 25, 2013

  • Scientific American reports on work from Richard Andersen's lab that uses the brain's intent to move as a possible signal to control a robotic limb.
  • Discovery News and the Pasadena Star-News share their impressions of TEDxCaltech: The Brain.
  • Nobel laureate David Baltimore discusses research into preventing HIV transmission in an interview with the Huffington Post TV show, "Talk Nerdy to Me."
  • Caltech's new Center for Planetary Astronomy is highlighted in a Pasadena Star-News article about exoplanets that includes comments from Mike Brown, John Johnson, and Heather Knutson.
  • KNBC TV, Talking Points Memo, and Voice of America quote John Johnson and Jonathan Swift on their research showing that the Milky Way contains an estimated 100 billion planets.

January 18, 2013

  • Jens Kauffmann talks about star formation in a Space.com article.
  • Colin Camerer talks to Inc.com about personal productivity and psychology.

January 11, 2013

December 28, 2012

  • The Sacramento Bee describes how Caltech students mix fine arts and physics.

December 21, 2012

  • President Obama honors Frances Arnold and 10 others with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, notes the Pasadena Sun.

December 14, 2012

  • Nature and Science report on Richard Ellis's observations of some of the oldest and most distant galaxies ever seen.

  • Engadget draws attention to the terahertz imaging chips developed in Ali Hajimiri's lab. 

  • A Huffington Post Live segment on the Voyager spacecraft includes an interview with Alan Cummings.

December 7, 2012

  • Time magazine talks with Ed Stone about Voyager I's journey as it nears interstellar space.

  • Engadget reports on a new device from Hyuck Choo's lab, which can focus light to a point only a few nanometers wide.

  • Greentech Media profiles research from Harry Atwater's lab into high efficiency photovoltaic cells.

November 30, 2012

November 23, 2012

  • In response to a politician's remark about the age of the Earth, USA Today takes a look back at geophysicist Clair C. Patterson's work in that area decades ago.

  • The Pasadena Sun and Pasadena Star News report on a student who won a $25,000 grant for his invention of a solar-powered cold-storage system.

November 16, 2012

  • Dave Malkoff reports on the causes of landslides and smog, and hears about weather on other planets, in separate pieces for the Weather Channel. The segments highlight the work of Mike Lamb, John Seinfeld and Andy Ingersoll.

  • The New York Times quotes David Baltimore in an article about why he and 67 other Nobel laureates endorsed President Obama in the recent election.

  • Harry Gray's work in recruiting a "solar army" is used in an article in Chemical & Engineering News as an example of crowdsourcing as a tool for chemical research.

  • US News & World Report covers John O'Doherty's research into initial impressions and romantic relationships.

November 9, 2012

  • The Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project received major media coverage in the days leading up to the presidential election, including interviews with Michael Alvarez at Slate.com, radio coverage on NPR's Science Friday and videos on voter fraud and online voting at CNN.com. 

  • The day after the election, neuroscientist Colin Camerer explains hindsight bias and the brain's tendency to "Monday morning quarterback," on KPCC's Take Two radio program. (You can find the link to the audio on the left-hand side of the page.)

  • The Pasadena Sun talks to incoming Caltech Board of Trustees chair David Lee, as well as the board's immediate past chair, Kent Kresa.

November 2, 2012

  • The Atlantic interviews Michael Hoffman about his lab's solar-powered toilet as part of an article on R&D in the developing world.

  • NBC-TV talks with Mike Alvarez about the recently released findings of the Voting Technology Project.

  • Mike Brown is recognized by Time Magazine as one of the 25 most influential people in space.

  • NBC News's Cosmic Log discusses NuSTAR's pictures of the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, quoting the mission's principal investigator, Caltech's Fiona Harrison.

  • Discover Magazine and its readers reflect on the life and recent passing of Wal Sargent.

  • Halloween pumpkins meet an untimely end, thanks to Caltech students, as reported in the Pasadena Sun.

October 26, 2012

  • CNN.com speaks with Fiona Harrison about NuSTAR's first glimpse of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

  • MSL project scientist John Grotzinger writes about the stories inside Mars' rocks in this New York Times op-ed.

  • Government IT (Computerworld) talks to Mike Alvarez about the recent findings of the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project.

  • FoxNews.com reports on recent research from Ralph Adolphs' lab on facial photographs and the perception of trustworthiness.

October 19, 2012

  • Technology Review explains Caltech's work at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), while the Pasadena Star-News writes about the new home of both JCAP and the Resnick Institute: the Earle M. Jorgensen Laboratory.

  • US News & World Report looks at research from Antonio Rangel's lab about the decision making process.

  • Engadget and The Register report on a microsensor innovation from Oskar Painter's lab.

  • NBC News reports on the latest findings from the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project.

  • KTLA TV spends time at Caltech during the Great California ShakeOut.

  • Swami Krishnan talks about the relationship between structural engineering and earthquake resilience on KNBC TV.

  • Caltech's commitment to sustainability is noted in this ABC TV segment on electric cars.

October 12, 2012

October 5, 2012

  • Caltech's #1 worldwide ranking by Times Higher Education is celebrated by the Los Angeles Times, Pasadena Star News, KCBS/KCAL, FOX 11, BBC radio, and more.

  • The Los Angeles Times and Pasadena Star News highlight Sarkis Mazmanian's microbiology research as they report on his recognition as a 2012 MacArthur Fellow.

  • KCBS Los Angeles covers Caltech's research on how distance influences perception in facial photographs.

  • KPCC and the Pasadena Star News talk about the contributions of Caltech's Robert Christy, who passed away on October 3. 

September 28, 2012

  • Caltech's research in neuroeconomics is highlighted in a story from The Chronicle of Higher Education (with quotes from Colin Camerer).

  • KTLA welcomes the space shuttle Endeavour to Los Angeles by interviewing Caltech emeritus professor Chris Brennan about his role in developing the shuttle's engines.

  • Wired Magazine explores Albert Einstein's thoughts and writings in a piece that highlights the publication of Volume 13 of The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein.

  • LiveScience and KCBS 2 in Los Angeles cover research from Ralph Adolphs' lab which suggests that close-up photos make people look less trustworthy.

September 21, 2012

  • The Pasadena Sun (a Los Angeles Times supplement) highlights the NIH Director's Awards presented to biologist Doris Tsao and geobiologist Dianne Newman.

  • Space.com does an in-depth interview with Caltech's John Grotzinger about Curiosity's science mission on Mars.

  • President Chameau talks to The Chronicle of Higher Education about the need to reform visa law so that immigrant entrepreneurs can build new companies and create jobs.

September 14, 2012

  • The Pasadena Sun and the Pasadena Star-News report on a $9-million grant to Caltech to establish a Silvio O. Conte Center for Neuroscience Research.

  • The Los Angeles Times talks to planetary geologist Bethany Ehlmann about Mars geology and explores theories about past habitable environments.

  • KPCC talks to Caltech seismologist Kate Hutton about the Beverly Hills quakes.

September 7, 2012

  • As Voyager I celebrates its 35th anniversary, its chief scientist, Ed Stone, tells the Associated Press about his experience working on the mission.

  • Chemical & Engineering News says hydrogen-fuel researchers now have the opportunity to develop better water-splitting catalysts, thanks to work done in Harry Gray's lab that has definitely determined the chemical reactions that make certain catalysts effective.

  • Los Angeles Times adds more coverage of the Roukes lab's work on measuring the mass of a single molecule.

  • A New York Times op-ed on the links between autism and immune dysfunction discusses research done in Paul Patterson's lab.

August 31, 2012

  • Scientific American reports on a device from Michael Roukes's lab that is the first to measure the mass of a single  molecule.

  • ScienceNOW also covers the Roukes lab's molecule-weighing nanodevice, in an article picked up by Wired magazine.

  • LiveScience looks at Caltech research that pinpoints the decision-making areas in the human brain.

  • Voice Of America talks with Caltech seismologist Kate Hutton after a swarm of earthquakes strikes the Southern California town of Brawley.

August 24, 2012

  • Discovery News explores research from Paul Bellan's lab on solar flares and coronal loops.

  • Space.com reports on NASA's renewal of its contract with Caltech to manage JPL.

  • Fast Company magazine delves into the historical connections between Caltech, JPL, and the city of Pasadena.

  • Nobel laureate and Caltech professor Ahmed Zewail lauds the landing of Curiosity on Mars but expresses concern for the future of scientific discovery in an op-ed that appeared in the Los Angeles Times and the Huffington Post, and was recognized by The Atlantic as one of the week's Five Best Columns.

  • NPR's Science Friday speaks with Caltech professor Michael Hoffman about his team's design of a solar-powered toilet for use in the developing world, which recently won the Gates Foundation's Reinvent the Toilet Challenge.

August 17, 2012

  • Professor emeritus Kip Thorn speaks with Space.com's Clara Moskowitz on the LIGO project's hunt for black holes and gravitational waves.

  • Caltech's victory in the Gates Foundation's Reinventing the Toilet competition is covered by Reuters in an article that was widely syndicated.

  • The Pasadena Sun, KCET, and NBC provide additional coverage of Caltech's winning solar-powered toilet design.

August 10, 2012

  • Los Angeles Times captures the excitement and educational opportunities of Mars rover in a conversation with Caltech president Jean-Lou Chameau.

  • Washington Post helps readers remember Caltech's role in the Mars mission, with a quote from Caltech's Jean-Lou Chameau.

  • Caltech and USGS earthquake early-warning system discussed on ABC in aftermath of this week's Yorba Linda quakes.

  • Pasadena Star News talks to Caltech president Jean-Lou Chameau about Mars Science Lab.

  • Since the heat is here in Pasadena, here's a burning question answered by Caltech's Sterl Phinney in Wall Street Journal.