Round, white Beckman auditorium, bathed in California sunshine, surrounded by lush, green grass and set off against the blue Pacific Ocean makes for a typical postcard-perfect scene from the California Institute of Technology.
This famous university, located in Pasadena, northeast of Los Angeles, is beautiful all right, but actually it's quite small. The campus covers 124 acres, 1/50th the size of Stanford's, and its entire student body, graduate students and undergraduates together, numbers just 1,800--it's produced only 17,000 graduates during the 100 years of its existence. But if reputation and the number of Nobel Prize winners associated with a school are any measure of its productivity, probably no other university in the world rates higher than Caltech.
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have won 21 Nobel Prizes and 29 National Medals of Science over the years. Sixty- three members of the current faculty are members of the National Academy of Sciences. Alumni donations are the fourth highest in the U.S. Weighted in terms of size, these figures are far and away the highest in the country. No wonder U.S. News and World Report ranks Caltech the fourth best university in the country, just behind Harvard, Yale and Stanford and way ahead of MIT, another science and engineering school that happens to be much better known.
In fact, Caltech has grounds for complaint in terms of unjust neglect.
"There aren't many alumni to begin with, and just a few people from Taiwan have studied there, graduated and come back, so Caltech is practically unknown in Taiwan," says Chen I-Ming, a doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering and president of the Chinese students association. When a biology student named Wang Kangsheng transferred there a few years ago from the University of California, he called home to tell his parents the name of his new school. His mother was aghast. "Why'd you want to transfer to a technical college?" she asked.
Similar misunderstandings occur even in the U.S. itself. It's said that a Caltech student was jogging near his home in a Caltech T-shirt when an older woman who had struck up a conversation with him exclaimed, "Caltech's a college? I thought it was just a place to study earth- quakes."
Regrettable incidents like these are on the decline, fortunately, thanks to recognition by those in the know.
"An older classmate of mine was applying for a job before graduation and when the interviewer heard he was from Caltech, he stood up and shook his hand," Chiang Dar-Yun, a doctoral student in applied mechanics, says with a smile.
The respect accorded Caltech by those in the know is due not so much to its national ranking as to its contributions in the field of science and technology.
How the elements were created, the foundations of molecular biology, the theory of the expanding universe, the different functions of the left and right sides of the brain, the age of the earth ... all are Caltech specialties. Caltech alumni were top officials in the program to put a man on the moon.
"There's a Chinese saying that a sparrow may be small, but it's got all its organs. Well, Caltech is small, but it's not complete either," quips Yuk Lo Yung, a professor in the department of geological and planetary sciences. The reason this small and relatively youthful institution has been able to achieve such gigantic accomplishments, he says, is that it has concentrated on making major breakthroughs in selected areas in the forefront of science.
"Scientific breakthroughs rely on human talent and training. Research in high-temperature super conductivity, for instance, doesn't require a lot of people," Yung points out. In addition, making the right choices involves vision and leader ship. "Caltech's founding president was a man of genius, like the first emperor of the Han dynasty, who managed to conquer the world with just a few followers."
Caltech's predecessor, Throop University, was founded in 1891 as a vocational school offering courses in art, woodworking, cooking and the like. But by 1907, at the instigation of astronomer George Ellery Hale, a trustee, the school began to change direction: it dropped its vocational curriculum and strove to become a first- rate institution of science and engineering.
Physics, astronomy, chemistry, aeronautical engineering, geology, aerospace and biology are Caltech's star departments even today.
When a big earthquake struck California last year, the geology professors became media darlings overnight. "The teachers were all wreathed with smiles the next day. I guess they finally had a chance to strut their stuff," geology student Ma Kuo-feng teases.
To further all-out development in these fields, Caltech has set up some of the leading research facilities in the world.
The W.M. Keck Observatory, located in Hawaii, boasts the largest optical telescope in the world. And the remote sensoring lab in the department Jet Propulsion Laboratory can even detect the sowing and harvesting of crops in the Soviet Union. Even before Soviet purchasing officials have opened their mouths, the U.S. already knows how much grain they need each year, what kinds and at what price.
"Whenever there was any movement on the surface of the earth in the Gulf War, the U.S. knew about it. That was also thanks to the lab," Yung says.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, located on campus, is one of NASA's five largest research centers, responsible for research and testing unmanned space vehicles. The laboratory comes under the administration of Caltech, and the students often have a chance to cooperate in research programs there. The year before last a 19-year-old undergraduate working there discovered a supernova in a galaxy 137 million light years away.
Looking ahead to future trends in scientific and technological development, the institute is launching several important new research programs as well.
The first, in genetic engineering, is aimed at cracking the genetic code of human chromosomes within the next 20 years. "In other words, to read God's blueprint for creating man," Yung explains. Caltech has asked the U.S. National Science Foundation for US$30 million to set up a research center in line with the plan.
Another one is the national aerospace plan project, intended to develop a high-altitude plane for the next century that will shrink the flying time from New York to Tokyo to just one hour. Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley are also taking part in the program.
Actually, a hot debate raged at Caltech in the 1960s about whether or not the school should expand, but those who advocated "small but excellent" finally won out.
"There were lots of reasons, naturally," Yung says. "In my view, one is of prime importance: California already has a fine university system. If we gave up our own direction, we'd just be joining in the chorus with all the rest, at best."
Excellence and small size do offer many advantages for research.
"The school follows a 'crack-troop' policy. It makes sure it has enough qualified faculty and facilities first, before accepting a single student," says Theodore Wu, a professor of engineering sciences. That's one reason the student body has remained at the same low level over the years. There are fewer undergraduates than graduate students, and fewer of them than faculty. Caltech has the highest faculty/student ratio in the entire United States.
"Instructors teach only one course each year, so we have a lot of time to interact with students," Wu says. "If a student wants to talk to us, there's no need to make an appointment--just knock on the door and come right in."
Even though they give just one course a year, teachers are required to update its contents constantly, and one course is often taught by several teachers. Some courses, such as experimental methods in earthquake engineering offered by the civil engineering department, may have more instructors in the class than students.
As it says in the school's brochure: "Caltech offers hospitality in its laboratories and classrooms for the genesis of ideas, provides support for their development, and demands uncompromising dedication to excellence in the results."
Caltech's high-powered faculty, it's worth noting, isn't made up of fresh-from-the-Ph.D.-mill academics: it includes Nobel prize winners and world-renowned scholars among its ranks.
Thomas Hunt Morgan, for instance, the first chairman of the biology division, had been pestered so often by offers from the school president he made extravagant demands just to scare him off, never thinking he'd agree to them all immediately.
In addition to famous professors, Caltech has used high salaries to bring in a number of younger scholars with outstanding potential.
"It's very hard to get a position here. Your field of expertise not only has to be new, it has to have a future over the next ten years and not be just a passing fad," says 30-year-old Yeh Nai- chang, who received a Ph.D. from MIT two years ago, did a year of postdoctoral research at IBM, and was hired by Caltech as an assistant professor of physics thanks to her expertise in solid-state physics.
Similarly, Tai Yu-chong, a newly arrived assistant professor of electrical engineering, believes if you want to teach or research at Caltech your field can't overlap with those of the other faculty members.
"Other universities use the team approach. Here they'd rather cultivate lone eagles," he says. With the professors on their own, there's a lot of pressure, because "the school's reputation in your field depends on you and you alone."
"The school's logistical support is first-rate," Yeh remarks. If you want to buy certain instruments or chemicals for the lab, for instance, just fill out a form and they're yours. There's none of the red tape that tangles up work at many universities.
Like the size of the student body and the faculty, the campus at Caltech is also small but excellent. It may be a hard-science institution, but it's dolled up to knock your eyes out. The lawn is even changed from summer to winter grass and back to maintain a perfect green year round.
The closeness between students and faculty, the big-family atmosphere, is also a result of its size. When the administration wants to notify the students of something, instead of just posting a sign on the bulletin board, it has a personalized letter sent to each student's mailbox. Most of the tests are based on the honor system, as is checking books out of the library.
The small but excellent approach has indeed helped Caltech achieve many important break- throughs in scientific research, but some professors believe the school's fields of research are too narrow, as though it's staked everything on a few throws of the dice. They worry how long the school can maintain its position at the top.
Yeh Nai-chang believes that Caltech should be able to maintain its leadership position in science over the next 10 or 20 years at least.
"Creativity is the most important thing for people in scientific research," she points out, and the school brings in only the best and goes all out to back them up and "maintain a flexible environment so they can give full rein to their creativity."
But coming from MIT, she's also worried that Caltech's students, outstanding as they are, are too modest and self-effacing.
"Not to mention working in business and industry, even if you stay at school and teach you still have to fight for research funds on the outside. If don't have enough aggressiveness, polish and poise, how can you expect people to give you a hearing?"
At MIT, where there are so many people they have to fight for everything, her teacher taught her to speak up for herself and attend conferences for him, giving her the confidence to lecture before hundreds of people. It was a big benefit.
"I'm planning to train some of my graduate students in this area, and I hope they'll be a lot different by the time they graduate," she says.
There's a joke that makes fun of the image Caltech students have of being brilliant but nerdy:
Asked to find out how high a tower is, the Caltech student juggles numbers and formulas all day long and determines that "the tower exists." The MIT student pulls out a surveyor's instrument and measures the tower to a tolerance of 0.01. The student from Harvard goes inside and slips the owner 10 bucks for the answer.
Faced with new challenges, can Caltech create a new image for itself? That's a task for its next hundred years.
[Picture Caption]
One fourth of the graduate students at Caltech are from Taiwan or mainland China, including many outstanding women.
(Left) Caltech faculty and students are a closely knit family. When a professor dies, the flag is flown at hall staff. The fountain is a student creation: the metal fi sh are rotated by the water they spout.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a major center for NASA research. Among its seven to eight thousand researchers are two to three hundred Chinese.
(Left) Beckman auditorium has a distinctive geometrical beauty.
Some of the departments have a tradition of celebrating with a bottle of champagne whenever a student or faculty member finishes a thesis.
After the last class of term, the students fire a cannon with gunpowder they made themselves to celebrate the arrival of vacation.
(Left) Despite their nerdy image, the brilliant students of Caltech have a mischievous side, and the underclassmen often play weird pranks on the last day of term. The professor in the red sweater has been captured by Klingons.
Caltech has adhered to its policy of small but excellent for a full century.
Caltech has practiced the honor system for years, even for checking books out of the library.
(Left) As you walk around the lovely campus, some of the people you see may be world-renowned scientists.
The sculptures and artwork around campus add a humanistic feeling to an institute of science and engineering.
What do the next hundred years hold in store?
(Left) Buried in their books all day long, the undergraduates emerge at noon for a break.
One fourth of the graduate students at Caltech are from Taiwan or mainland China, including many outstanding women.
（Left） Beckman auditorium has a distinctive geometrical beauty.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a major center for NASA research. Among its seven to eight thousand researchers are two to three hundred Chinese.
Some of the departments have a tradition of celebrating with a bottle of champagne whenever a student or faculty member finishes a thesis.
（Left） Despite their nerdy image, the brilliant students of Caltech have a mischievous side, and the underclassmen often play weird pranks on the last day of term. The professor in the red sweater has been captured by Klingons.
After the last class of term, the students fire a cannon with gunpowder they made themselves to celebrate the arrival of vacation.
Caltech has adhered to its policy of small but excellent for a full century.
（Left） As you walk around the lovely campus, some of the people you see may be world-renowned scientists.
Caltech has practiced the honor system for years, even for checking books out of the library.
The sculptures and artwork around campus add a humanistic feeling to an institute of science and engineering.
（Left） Buried in their books all day long, the undergraduates emerge at noon for a break.
What do the next hundred years hold in store?
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