Caltech Receives Grant to Teach Joint Seminar With Huntington Library

PASADENA—The California Institute of Technology has received a $90,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in support of the newly created Mellon Seminar in Interpretation.

The Mellon seminar, to be taught jointly by Caltech Associate Professor of History William Deverell and Amy Meyers, curator of American art at the Huntington Library, will address the intersection between documentary and visual records in American history. Eight graduate students from across the United States will come to Pasadena to take part in the eight-week program.

"This seminar program is an important step in drawing the intellectual resources of Caltech and the Huntington Library ever closer," commented Deverell. "This partnership, which was envisioned by George Ellery Hale 80 years ago, offers exciting opportunities to Caltech students and faculty, Huntington curators and fellows, and scholars from other universities."

The program will be overseen by the newly established Caltech Huntington Committee for the Humanities. CHCH is a unique partnership between Caltech and the Huntington Library designed to foster collaborative intellectual and pedagogical exchange between the humanities faculty at Caltech, and the curators and readers at the Huntington.

Founded in 1891, Caltech has an enrollment of some 2,000 students, and an academic staff of about 280 professorial faculty and 130 research faculty. The Institute has more than 19,000 alumni. Caltech employs a staff of more than 1,700 on campus and 5,300 at JPL.

Over the years, 27 Nobel Prizes and four Crafoord Prizes have been awarded to faculty members and alumni. Forty-four Caltech faculty members and alumni have received the National Medal of Science; and eight alumni (two of whom are also trustees), two additional trustees, and one faculty member have won the National Medal of Technology. Since 1958, 13 faculty members have received the annual California Scientist of the Year award. On the Caltech faculty there are 75 fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and on the faculty and Board of Trustees, 69 members of the National Academy of Sciences and 49 members of the National Academy of Engineering.