Outgoing Caltech President Will Reflect on the Institute’s Century-Old Bond With The Huntington at ‘Founders’ Day’ Event

The physicist and the literary scholar will sit across from each other tonight in Rothenberg Hall, representing two institutions that have shared a border and a mission for more than a century.

Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum and The Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence headline The Huntington’s annual Founders’ Day program on Thursday evening, a conversation about the long relationship between a research university in Pasadena and a cultural institution in San Marino whose campuses sit less than a mile apart.

Rosenbaum, who has led Caltech since 2014, retires on June 30 after 12 years in office. Astrophysicist Ray Jayawardhana, currently provost of Johns Hopkins University, will succeed him on July 1 as Caltech’s tenth president.

The event, titled “The Huntington and Caltech: Science and the Humanities, Pasadena and Beyond,” runs from 7 to 8 p.m. It is free with reservation (see below).

That two presidents would share a stage is not unusual. That both institutions they lead trace their origins to the same person, is.

Astronomer George Ellery Hale, who settled in Pasadena in 1904 as director of the Mount Wilson Observatory, was instrumental in transforming a local vocational school called Throop Institute into the California Institute of Technology. He also encouraged railroad magnate Henry E. Huntington to turn his private library, art, and botanical collections into a public research institution.

In a letter dated March 28, 1916, Hale wrote to Huntington that the region had “a great need of a strong institution of broad scope, uniting all the intellectual interests of this region in a common focus,” according to an account published by The Huntington’s Office of the President. Three years later, Henry and Arabella Huntington signed the trust document that created The Huntington.

The collaboration Hale envisioned has endured. In 2019, Caltech and The Huntington launched the Caltech-Huntington Advanced Research Institute in the History of Science and Technology, a joint center providing doctoral students access to The Huntington’s collections, which include one of the largest history of science holdings in North America, according to The Huntington.

Thursday’s program will include a reflection on the defining moments of Rosenbaum’s tenure and how the sciences and humanities together can address contemporary challenges, according to The Huntington. Rosenbaum, a condensed matter physicist who received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard and his Ph.D. from Princeton, described his role in his retirement letter as having 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,” according to Caltech’s announcement.

Lawrence, a scholar of James Joyce who previously served as president of Sarah Lawrence College and dean of humanities at UC Irvine, has led The Huntington since September 2018. Under her leadership, Founders’ Day was expanded to honor Arabella Huntington alongside Henry for their joint roles in establishing the institution, according to The Huntington.

Past Founders’ Day programs have featured guests including writer Charles Yu in 2022 and a panel on the legacy of Octavia E. Butler in 2025, according to The Huntington.

In-person tickets have limited availability. There is no waitlist, but additional tickets will be released as cancellations occur, and standby guests will be accommodated on a first-come, first-served basis, according to The Huntington. A livestream option is available. Rothenberg Hall is at The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. For information, call 626-405-2100 or visit huntington.org/founders-day.

Two institutions, less than a mile apart, shaped by the same astronomer. Tonight, their leaders will sit together one more time before the constellation shifts.