Robert F. Bacher Symposium: Reinventing Caltech / A Vision for the Next 25 Years of PMA

PART I: REINVENTING CALTECH

Robert F. Bacher (Caltech's first Provost) and Lee A. DuBridge (our first President) "reinvented" Caltech in 1950-1970, transforming it from "Millikan's School" into the modern Caltech. Robert Christy (Caltech's second Provost), who participated in that transformation, will give a talk describing it, followed by s panel discussion on transformations of Caltech in the present era. As we embark on a search for President Baltimore's successor, this discussion will help us take stock of some forces and opportunities that are triggering changes in Caltech. How are we responding to them? How should we respond?

Panelists:

• David Baltimore
• Paul Jennings
• selected trustees and faculty

• Patterns of Science Funding: The decreasing ability of federal agencies to meet today's funding challenges & opportunities; the increasing importance of private funding ("reinventing the Medicis")' the decreasing roles of industrial R&D labs, and universities' picking up some of those roles...
• Caltech Faculty as Entrepreneurs: both in raising funding for Caltech research, and in starting new companies; decrease of faculty science productivity due to fund-raising distractions; tensions between faculty roles and responsibilities at Caltech and in outside companies...
• Big Science / Small Science: The changing balance at Caltech and its implications; the two living side by side; increasing reliance of small research groups on big instrumentation...
• Legal Issues: Increasing government regulation, increasing litigiousness of American society, and their impact on Caltech
• Boundaries between Fields of Science: Boundaries are crumbling, and new fields are arising at the boundaries - biophysics, biochemistry, CNS, nanotechnology, computational science, quantum information science... Does Caltech's divisional structure impede our ability to deal with and take advantage of these changes?

PART II: THE NEXT 25 YEARS OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

Several Caltech faculty will present visions for the next 25 years of their fields at Caltech. Introductions will tie the present and future of these fields to Bacher's roles in the 1930s-70s:

• High-energy, intermediate-energy, and fundamental physics - Barry Barish and Sergey Gukov
• Condensed-Matter, Atomic-Molecular-Optical Physics, and Quantum Information - Jim Eisenstein, Jeff Kimble, John Preskill
• Ground-based and Space-based Astronomy - Shri Kulkarni and Fiona Harrison
• Cosmology - Mark Kamionkowsi and Andrew Lange

CLOSING REMARKS by Andy Bacher, Robert Bacher's son, Caltech alumnus (Ph.D. 1967), and Professor of Physics at Indiana University

This symposium is being organized by Kip Thorne in consultation with Tom Tombrello and many colleagues. He welcomes the input and advice of the Caltech community.