In graduate school, Jennifer Jahner became intrigued by the medieval equivalent of the “protest song”—verses that took the thorniest and most controversial matters of the time, like war and taxes, and presented them in an artful, persuasive way. When she poked around and found that many of these poems remained understudied and unknown, she took them on and has spent the years since examining the origins of propaganda in the Middle Ages.

As the curtains were closing on his high school days, Mojolaoluwa “Josh” Sonola had a choice to make. Stay near home and go to Georgia Tech, or strike out for the West Coast and study at Caltech?

As an undergraduate, Robert Grubbs started out as an agricultural chemistry major. But when a friend invited him to help out in an organic chemistry lab, his research path—and his life—changed. Finding his passion in organic chemistry as a young scientist led Grubbs to a fruitful career at Caltech, one that earned him a Nobel Prize in 2005.

Julie Jester (BS ’14) wanted to make Caltech history—specifically the history of Caltech pranks. As president of the Prank Club, the electrical engineering major knew she had a tradition to uphold. Caltech undergraduates have been devising elaborate and inventive goofs for decades upon decades.

Manan Arya (PhD ’16) had a space problem. The problem? When you want to send something into outer space, taking up as little space as possible is a big deal.