Caltech Gathers to Honor Outgoing President Rosenbaum After 12 Years at the Helm

The California Institute of Technology will hold a celebratory gathering on the campus’ Olive Walk on February 20 to mark President Thomas F. Rosenbaum’s 12 years of leadership.

Rosenbaum, Caltech’s ninth president, assumed office on July 1, 2014, and will step down June 30  — the longest anyone has served in the position since Lee DuBridge held the job for 23 years ending in 1969. Astrophysicist Ray Jayawardhana, currently provost of Johns Hopkins University, was named Caltech’s tenth president in January and takes over July 1.

The celebration runs from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Caltech’s 124-acre campus at 1200 East California Boulevard. The event will include brief remarks at noon followed by a hosted lunch. All members of the Caltech community are invited, according to the listing, which describes the gathering as intended to thank the community “for the energy, insight, ingenuity, and commitment that each person brings to Caltech every day.”

In an April 2025 letter announcing his retirement, Rosenbaum wrote that his job as president “has been to sustain and enhance our culture, our values, our intimate environment, our commitment to primary sources and first principles, our defense of evidence-based inquiry, our devotion to learning and discovery.”

During his tenure, Caltech researchers achieved the first direct observation of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, known as LIGO, and three faculty members received Nobel Prizes — two in 2017 and one in 2018 — according to Caltech Magazine. The Institute also constructed several new campus facilities, including the Bechtel Residence, the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Neuroscience Research Building, and the Hameetman Center, according to Caltech’s retirement announcement. Increases in financial aid and scholarship support also made a Caltech education more affordable during his presidency, according to the Institute.

“Under Tom’s guidance, and as a result of the enhancements he has overseen to the student experience, including increasing the Institute’s investment in student scholarships, fellowships, and supporting programs, Caltech is better equipped to attract the brightest and most talented future scientists and engineers,” Dave Thompson, chair of Caltech’s Board of Trustees, said in a Caltech Magazine interview published in November 2025.

Rosenbaum, a condensed matter physicist who holds the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and is a professor of physics, previously served as provost at the University of Chicago. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University and a doctorate in physics from Princeton University. He will remain on the Caltech faculty after stepping down, according to the Institute.

In an interview with Caltech Magazine published in November 2025, Rosenbaum reflected on the challenges of his final year. “Clearly, this isn’t the year I envisioned,” he said. “Many of the core principles remain unchanged. This moment offers a chance to reaffirm our deep commitment to academic freedom, scientific inquiry, and the pursuit of truth and discovery.”

Jayawardhana’s appointment was announced January 6, 2026, at a community-wide gathering on the Caltech campus in Pasadena, according to the Institute. He will succeed Rosenbaum on July 1.

Asked how he hoped the Caltech community would remember his leadership, Rosenbaum told Caltech Magazine: “That Caltech was the place where they realized their full potential.”

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