institute funding priorities

More than any other single factor, it is Caltech people—faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, friends, and supporters—who make Caltech the singular institution it is. Each contributes to Caltech’s electric environment of curiosity and discovery.

Why do Caltech faculty and students so often make discoveries and inventions that change the world? It's not just because they have access to cutting-edge labs and instruments, but because they have the flexibility to exercise their vision. That’s why endowed support for them—scholarships, fellowships, professorships, discovery funds, and so forth—are every bit as important as the funds dedicated to concrete and steel.

You can help advance discoveries and education in areas that interest you by contributing to an existing endowment, or by establishing a new, named endowment. If you'd like more information, please call 626/395-6134 or 877/CALTECH to speak with a member of the development staff.

“Doing the kind of science that makes Caltech special requires the freedom to pursue new ideas quickly, to be creative and think outside the box, and to have the resources to carry those ideas through to completion. If we relied entirely on external federal funding, it would be completely impossible to do that—such funding is far too slow and far too conservative. It is not science the Caltech way. I think one of the big reasons we’re able to attract the best young faculty in the world is also related to this: they know that here they can do exactly the work they believe to be the most important.”
—Ralph Adolphs, Bren Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Professor of Biology