Annual Report2020

Our plans for Pasadena include a deeper, more formal relationship with Caltech that will build upon our historic collaborations in astronomy and astrophysics and offer exciting new opportunities in global ecology, genetics and developmental biology, and plant biology. The Pasadena location also will enable us to expand upon existing Carnegie research relationships with Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other universities and institutions in and around Los Angeles. Looking ahead, we believe Carnegie will make a powerful contribution to Southern California’s growing reputation as a top-tier research hub. 

To support our plans for our new location and to secure our ability to invest in future science, we have decided to sell our P Street headquarters, following a discernment process that has taken place over several years. We are aware that this beautiful building has been an important part of this institution’s public face for more than a century, and it has provided some exceptional opportunities to bring our science to the public, and to convene communities of scientists. Unfortunately, it is not well suited for scientific exploration in the 21st century. So we have come to the realization that it is time to sell this great asset and invest the proceeds in our work and our future. 

I would add that the last year has given us additional insights into the best ways to engage with the public. The pandemic forced us to make our evening lecture series virtual instead of presenting in our P Street auditorium. Although we were initially hesitant about making that shift, we have found that our virtual lectures are drawing an audience of science-loving people from around the world. That proved to us that people are interested what we have to say, not where we say it. 

Throughout these organizational changes, our science has continued to flourish. Astronomer Andrew McWilliam and his collaborators have been turning their gaze from the chemical evolution of Red Giant stars to take a deeper look at the atmospheres of terrestrial exoplanets. Their colleague at the Observatories, staff scientist Nick Konidaris, is serving as instrument lead for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-V’s Local Volume Mapper, a coordinated system of four telescopes that will enable a massive spectrographic survey to reveal for the first time how distinct gaseous environments within galaxies interact with each other and with stars. 

Geoscientists Steven Shirey, Anat Shahar, and Michael Walter have won a National Science Foundation grant to study the minerals trapped in “superdeep” diamonds that form in the Earth’s mantle. These minerals provide important insights into the origins, changing composition, and circulation of materials hundreds of miles below Earth’s surface. In Life Sciences, Moisés Expósito-Alonso and his team are improving our ability to predict species extinction by investigating the ways the ability to adapt is encoded in DNA. Given recent predictions that one-third of all animal and plant species on the planet could face extinction by 2070 due to climate change, the ability to develop predictive models of ecological adaptation could be crucially important. 

We also continue our commitment to science education and outreach. As you’ll read in this report, our Carnegie Academy for Science Education (CASE) has opened the doors to careers in biotech for high school students by partnering with the National Capitol Area YWCA to create a rigorous biotechnology curriculum, including research-grade laboratory equipment, for teachers in Washington, D.C., 

One sad note: We continue to feel the loss of Don Brooks, our Building Maintenance Specialist. He died in October at age 75 of complications of coronavirus after more than half a century as a member of the Carnegie Science community. 

Throughout this difficult year, I have gained strength and encouragement from the example set by so many of our dedicated colleagues. I believe that the lessons we have learned together throughout this pandemic will guide us as we work to renew our organization, strengthen our leadership, and expand our impact.

We stand at a pivotal moment in the history of Carnegie Science. This organization has endured and flourished for more than a century because our founder understood the powerful results that can be achieved when great scientists have the freedom and resources to follow their curiosity, pursue novel ideas, and tackle the big questions that capture their imagination and inspire their best work. As we move forward, our every effort will be focused on assuring Carnegie Science’s present and future ability to pursue bold research, seize new opportunities as they arise, and define new exciting fields of investigation from their very inception.

Sincerely,