The 2011 Japanese earthquake was a defining moment for Mark Simons. The devastating 9.0-magnitude quake and its subsequent tsunami, which took nearly 16,000 lives, spurred efforts around the globe that will shape how nations predict and prepare for future natural disasters and motivated new approaches to basic earthquake science that are applicable to seismic events large and small.

Dianne Newman views Southern California as a melting pot of diversity. But for her, some of the most interesting inhabitants are best viewed under a microscope.

Caltech surprised chemist and neurobiologist Linda Hsieh-Wilson when she arrived as a new professor in 2000. The unusually interactive campus felt like a community, even a family.

Peter Hung has seen Caltech from a variety of angles—as an undergraduate, a graduate student, an award-winning instructor, a research mentor, an alumnus, and a donor. His story is a case study in what Caltech gives to its community, and how that community gives back.

Caltech geochemist John Eiler aims to reveal “the genetics of everything”—the history of each molecule in the natural world as written in its isotopic structure. What he finds out could have implications for ventures ranging from the study of meteorites to medical diagnosis and treatment.