Creative Funding Strategies: Searle Visitors Program

A historian with interests as wide-ranging as entomology and Greek astronomy has become the first-ever Eleanor Searle Visiting Professor in the History of Science, a newly established joint program between Caltech and the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

The initiative was made possible thanks to funding from an anonymous local couple. To fulfill their philanthropic objective, the couple will provide $100,000 in annual program costs during their lifetimes. Additionally, they have established a $2 million charitable remainder trust to eventually fund the Searle Visiting Professors Endowment, which will maintain the initiative in perpetuity. The gift structure provides a great example of the variety of ways in which donors can maximize their support.

Ido Yavetz, assistant professor at the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University in Israel, was named the inaugural Searle Scholar. Yavetz specializes in the histories of classical electromagnetic field theory, electrical technology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, entomology in the 19th century, and early Greek astronomy. He arrived in Pasadena last fall and will remain for the academic year.

"This is a fitting tribute to Professor Searle, who was an accomplished historian and one of Caltech's true pioneers," says Caltech president David Baltimore. "The benefactors, who have requested anonymity, have ensured that world-class scholars like Professor Yavetz will expose generations of Caltech students to the historic significance of great scientific discoveries." "The Huntington and Caltech were born at roughly the same time as research institutes and have remained close ever since," says Robert C. Ritchie, W. M. Keck Director of Research at the Huntington. "This gift furthers our joint goals in the history of science and honors a great scholar who enriched the intellectual life of Caltech and the Huntington."

During his visiting professorship, Yavetz will teach two courses at Caltech, as well as conduct research at the Huntington in the area of ancient Greek astronomy. Yavetz received his bachelor's degree and then did postgraduate work in physics while earning a master's and PhD in the history of science, all at Tel Aviv University. He also served as a visiting professor at Caltech from 1999-2000.

The goal of the program is to bring to campus visiting faculty who have a superb track record in teaching and who can inspire students to think about the role creativity plays in the scientific process. A different perspective on the challenges confronted by Copernicus, Galileo, Da Vinci, Newton, and Einstein in their work, and how they overcame those challenges, could be enlightening to today's scientists.

Simultaneously, faculty members will have the opportunity to exercise their own creativity in performing research at the Huntington to help inform their teaching. Each year the scholar will be chosen by Caltech faculty with the advice and consent of the Huntington's director of research.

The program is named for the late Eleanor Searle, Edie and Lew Wasserman Professor of History, who in 1988 became the first woman to hold a named professorship at Caltech. A world-renowned medieval historian who authored four books that are still widely cited, she was a popular teacher and respected colleague during her time at Caltech, from 1979 to 1993. Searle's students and fellow faculty members were saddened when glaucoma cut short her career and forced her to retire early. She continued conducting research at the Huntington until her death in 1999.

Please contact Caltech's Office of Gift Planning at 626-395-2927 for more information on using creative gift structures to help support Caltech.