A $15 million pledge to Caltech from trustee James F. Rothenberg and his wife, Anne, will fuel two areas of intrinsic importance to the Institute: graduate student support and research innovation.
The Rothenbergs' gift will endow fellowships across the Institute's six academic divisions. In addition, the Rothenbergs have bolstered their already generous support for the Caltech Innovation Initiative (CI2).
"The Rothenbergs' generosity underscores Caltech's commitment to supporting outstanding scholars in an environment of ambition and innovation," says President Thomas F. Rosenbaum, holder of the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor of physics. "It helps the Institute to both create knowledge for the long term and offer solutions to the problems that confront society now. We are enormously grateful for Jim and Anne's choice to give so strategically and enthusiastically."
James Rothenberg sees the couple's gift to Caltech as an effective way to invest in the country's future.
"I think that over time there are two drivers of the U.S. economy other than natural resources: education—an educated labor force, an educated populace—and innovation," he says. "As a country, we seem to do better at that than most places in the world. From my perspective, anything I can do to help spur that kind of activity at Caltech makes perfect sense."
Across the higher education landscape, there is strong competition to recruit the top graduate students who accelerate progress in the laboratories of the faculty who train and mentor them. In this environment, Rothenberg sees a compelling argument to endow more and larger fellowships at Caltech. "I want Caltech to be able to attract excellence, wherever excellence may be," he says, "because excellent people will get things done."
Accomplished graduate fellows are one element of an overall institutional culture that has Rothenberg impressed by Caltech, a "major institution" right in the Pasadena resident's backyard. In particular, he cites the Institute's output in comparison with that of other universities. "The more you learn about Caltech, the more you see how much gets accomplished with a relatively small faculty and budget," he says.
CI2 is a case in point. Launched in 2009, CI2 provides essential seed funding for early-stage research that addresses pressing problems and could lead to marketable technologies. These internal grants spur creativity by giving Caltech faculty more freedom to develop bold ideas, bridging the gap between initial work and the proof of concept often required for government support or venture capital investments.
Already, the Institute has applied for more than 100 patents related to dozens of investigations backed by CI2. Even so, while he is pleased with the "interesting things" that have come out of CI2 thus far, Rothenberg is focused on what might be possible with continued investment over the long term. "It's still early to know whether you'll get payoff," he says. "If you hit one out of ten, it's good."
Rothenberg was elected to the Caltech Board of Trustees in 2006. He chairs the board's Business and Finance Committee, serves as vice chair of the Development Committee, and is a member of the Investment Committee. He also participates in the life of the Institute as a member of the Caltech Associates.
"The impact of Jim and Anne's gift goes beyond the crucial support it supplies and the breakthroughs it may enable," says David L. Lee (PhD '74), chair of the Caltech Board of Trustees. "When the people who know the Institute best make substantial commitments, it sends an unmistakable message: Caltech is the place to be, philanthropically."
A two-time Harvard alumnus (he received a BA and an MBA from Harvard University), James Rothenberg also plays a prominent role at his alma mater—where he has served as treasurer and currently chairs the board for the subsidiary that manages its endowment, the Harvard Management Company.
Of his connections to Harvard and Caltech—both elite hubs of higher education—he notes, "I think they're valuable institutions, both of them, and very different."
Rothenberg, a chartered financial analyst, is chairman of the Los Angeles-based Capital Group Companies, Inc., a premier investment management firm where he has held a variety of leadership positions since joining in 1970. He serves on several corporate boards, including those of Capital Research and Management Company and American Funds Distributors, Inc., and is a portfolio counselor and vice chairman for the Growth Fund of America. He also sits on the boards of Huntington Memorial Hospital, KCET, and the J. Paul Getty Trust.
Anne Rothenberg has worked as a reporter or editor for Life, Fortune, and Architectural Digest magazines. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
For all of the leadership and support that James Rothenberg supplies to Caltech, he maintains a certain sense of wonder about the Institute's prominent role in frontier-defining investigations.
"It gives you a different feeling when the rover lands on Mars," he says. "Listening to someone who's going to spend the next six, eight years working on the next mission—it's fascinating to think about. I want to be part of keeping Caltech a vibrant and vital place."
Written by Wayne Lewis