Ray Jayawardhana Appointed Tenth President of Caltech

Ray Jayawardhana Appointed Tenth President of Caltech

Ray Jayawardhana has been appointed as the tenth president of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), with his tenure scheduled to commence on July 1, 2026. He will succeed Thomas F. Rosenbaum, who will conclude 12 years of service as Caltech's ninth president in June 2026 and will remain on the faculty as a professor of physics.

David W. Thompson, Chair of the Caltech Board of Trustees, stated that Jayawardhana's selection was a unanimous decision by the Board. Jayawardhana affirmed a commitment to Caltech's mission of fundamental research and education, alongside strengthening its capacity for knowledge pursuit and innovation application. He outlined intentions to partner with faculty and stakeholders to advance investments in initiatives on campus, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and within Caltech's global observatories. Additional stated priorities include enriching the experiences of students and postdoctoral fellows, and expanding public engagement. Jayawardhana also noted the evolving global landscape for research universities, citing funding uncertainties and technological shifts.

Professional Background

Prior to his appointment at Caltech, Jayawardhana served as the Provost of Johns Hopkins University. In this role, he oversaw its 10 schools and a portfolio of interdisciplinary programs, academic centers, and administrative units. His contributions at Johns Hopkins included:

• Launching the Data Science and AI Institute and the School of Government and Policy.
• Expanding departments within the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.
• Managing investments in academic talent and modernizing research infrastructure.
• Enhancing internal funding opportunities and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, including steering the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships (BDP) program, recruiting 14 new BDPs, and selecting seven new BDP interdisciplinary research clusters.
• Strengthening ties between academic divisions and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).
• Refining university-wide tenure review and establishing tenure and promotion processes across multiple schools.
• Implementing targeted funding mechanisms to ensure research continuity.
• Expanding student opportunities and support through new financial aid strategies.
• Collaborating with deans to achieve increased retention and graduation rates.
• Championing public engagement through initiatives such as the Provost's Fellows for Public Engagement and a Taskforce on the Arts.
• Bolstering external partnerships with philanthropic, research, and cultural organizations.

Before Johns Hopkins, Jayawardhana was the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University, as well as the Hans A. Bethe Professor and professor of astronomy. At Cornell, his leadership included:

• Launching the Klarman Fellowships, New Frontier Grants, Nexus Scholars program, and Humanities Scholars Program.
• Introducing a Distinguished Visiting Journalist program and the Arts Unplugged series.
• Leading a $110 million renewal of McGraw Hall.
• Overseeing education reforms, including a new undergraduate curriculum, first-year advising seminars, and the Milstein Program in Technology & Humanity.
• Expanding public and media engagement by faculty and achieving consecutive fundraising records.
• Developing initiatives in climate, AI, and quantum research.

Earlier in his career, Jayawardhana spent a decade as a faculty member at the University of Toronto, where he held a Canada Research Chair and served as senior advisor on science engagement to the university's president. He subsequently served as the Dean of Science at York University. His career began with a Miller Research Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, followed by an assistant professorship at the University of Michigan.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in astronomy and physics from Yale University and a Doctor of Philosophy in astronomy from Harvard University.

Research and Public Engagement

As a scientist, Jayawardhana's research focuses on the diversity, origins, and evolution of planets and planetary systems, in addition to the formation of stars and brown dwarfs. He utilizes telescopes such as the W. M. Keck Observatory (co-managed by Caltech and the University of California) and the James Webb Space Telescope. He is a core science team member for the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRISS instrument and has led Gemini Observatory programs on high-resolution spectroscopy of exoplanetary atmospheres. He has co-authored 180 refereed papers in scientific journals, accumulating over 10,000 total citations.

Jayawardhana has engaged in science communication through various platforms. He has published articles in publications including The Economist, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. His popular science book, Strange New Worlds, formed the basis for The Planet Hunters television documentary. His book Neutrino Hunters received the Canadian Science Writers Association's Book Award. He also authored the children's picture book, Child of the Universe. He has delivered public lectures and made numerous media appearances.

His awards and honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Radcliffe Fellowship from Harvard, the Rutherford Medal in Physics from the Royal Society of Canada, the Nicholson Medal from the American Physical Society, and the Carl Sagan Medal from the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences. Asteroid 4668 Rayjay is named in his honor.

Jayawardhana's personal interests include travel, having visited over 60 countries and all seven continents. His experiences include time at observatories in Chile and Hawaii, meteorite collection in Antarctica, a parabolic flight with the European Space Agency, observing a solar eclipse in western Mongolia, and exploring a South African mine with geobiologists.