On July 1, 2026, Caltech welcomed renowned astrophysicist, acclaimed author, and transformative leader, Ray Jayawardhana, as the Institute’s tenth president, Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair, and professor of astronomy.
“Today, I’m honored to begin my service as Caltech’s 10th president,” Jayawardhana wrote in his first message to the Caltech community. “Long before this day appeared on the horizon, Caltech and JPL have held a special place in my mind as beacons of humanity’s most ambitious acts of exploration and discovery.”
Jayawardhana joins Caltech with a focus on leading the Institute through significant shifts in the national, global, and technological landscapes for science. “I intend to be a fierce advocate for the Institute’s mission, for the people who advance it, and for the case that fundamental discovery and applied innovation are not in tension, that they reinforce each other,” he said in a recent interview with Caltech magazine. “Making that case with passion and conviction is a challenge I welcome.”
He also emphasized the importance of bringing people together, focusing resources, and “expanding the kinds of investments that allow faculty and students to pursue blue-sky, high-risk ideas that wouldn’t otherwise take flight.”
In addition to overseeing Caltech’s Pasadena campus, Jayawardhana is responsible for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the world’s leading center for robotic exploration, which Caltech manages for NASA, as well as a suite of international observatories that include the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), and the W. M. Keck and Palomar observatories.
In his note to the community, Jayawardhana reflected on his conversations with more than 220 members of the Caltech-JPL community and external stakeholders over the past six months. “Time and again, I’ve been struck not only by the audacity and brilliance of the work underway here, but also by this community of creative and original thinkers who seem constitutionally incapable of leaving the hardest questions unanswered,” Jayawardhana wrote.
“The Caltech presidential search and selection process brought forward an incredible spectrum of candidates with impeccable academic and leadership credentials. Ray distinguished himself as someone who had all the key qualities we were looking for in the Institute’s leader: a brilliant academic, an energetic leader, and an effective communicator,” says Taylor W. Lawrence (BS ’86), a member of the Caltech Board of Trustees and a member of the presidential search and selection committees. “The Board of Trustees looks forward to working closely with him to continue Caltech’s success as the leading institution of scientific and academic excellence in the world.”
“Ray Jayawardhana’s passion for science, engineering and discovery, plus his extraordinary leadership and communication skills, make him the ideal president for Caltech. I look forward to a strong partnership between the Faculty Board and the administration, and to working with Ray for years to come,” says Azita Emami, the Andrew and Peggy Cherng Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering, a member of the presidential search committee, and chair of the faculty as of July 1.
Jayawardhana succeeds Thomas F. Rosenbaum, whom he thanked in his community message, remarking that the Institute “bears the unmistakable imprints of his leadership over more than a decade.”
He also reflected on the words of another predecessor, Harold Brown, who served from 1969 to 1977. Brown, he noted, “spoke admiringly of [Caltech’s] ‘infectious spirit,’ rooted in the variety and quality of the research and, above all, the outstanding nature of the people.” Jayawardhana added: “It hasn’t taken me long to appreciate exactly what he meant.”
Jayawardhana most recently served as provost of Johns Hopkins University, where he oversaw the university’s 10 schools as well as an expansive portfolio of interdisciplinary programs, academic centers, and core administrative and operational units. During his tenure, he launched major academic initiatives, strengthened research infrastructure, and deepened the university’s ties to outside partners and the broader public.
As a scientist, Jayawardhana investigates the origin and evolution of planets and planetary systems, as well as the formation of stars and brown dwarfs. A prolific scholar with more than 180 peer-reviewed papers and over 11,000 citations, he has also brought a sense of discovery to the public as the author of several acclaimed popular science books and a writer whose work has appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Jayawardhana will continue his research alongside his presidential responsibilities as a Caltech professor of astronomy in the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy.
Jayawardhana’s interest in space traces back to his childhood. At a community-wide gathering held in January to announce his appointment, he shared a story about his first encounter with Caltech: a viewbook of outer-planet images captured by Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, which he requested from JPL via aerogramme as “a space-obsessed kid growing up in Sri Lanka.”
That JPL viewbook was not Jayawardhana’s only encounter with Caltech. While a graduate student, he participated in a Michelson Summer School on campus, a predecessor to the Sagan Exoplanet Summer Workshops now managed by IPAC at Caltech.
As he begins his tenure as Caltech’s president, Jayawardhana embraces the Institute’s distinctive nature and mission as both a remarkable inheritance and an extraordinary opportunity.
“I step into this role with profound respect for all that makes Caltech singular,” he wrote in his community message. “I can imagine no greater privilege––or more exciting adventure––than working alongside all of you as we build on Caltech’s unsurpassed legacy of discovery and impact and chart its next frontiers together.”
Get our daily Pasadena newspaper in your email box. Free.
Get all the latest Pasadena news, more than 10 fresh stories daily, 7 days a week at 7 a.m.
