Community Member Milestones
- Celebrating a remarkable career:
Joseph "Joe" Drew
In March, Joe, the Facilities and Stockroom Operations Manager in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (CCE), will conclude more than 30 years of dedicated service at Caltech. During his tenure, Joe established laboratories for new faculty, guided CCE through rapidly changing procedures during the pandemic, and resolved issues with his deep knowledge of the division’s operations.
- Welcome to Caltech:
William Phillips
On January 5, William joined Caltech as operations staff in Athletics, Recreation, and Instruction (ARI). At ARI, he will assist with the membership program, provide customer service to guests and members of the facility, and work collaboratively with the operations team and department staff. Prior to Caltech, he worked in operations and athletics at Providence Christian College.
- Celebrating a recognition:
Jonas Flygare
Jonas received the Alumnus of the Year – Rising Star award from his alma mater, Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden at the end of 2025. He was recognized for his contributions to the development of future radio astronomy, especially through the Deep Synoptic Array project at Caltech, where he leads the feed antenna design.
- Celebrating a recognition:
Isaac Aguilar
Isaac, a second-year PhD student in geobiology, won an Environment and Exposures Research Poster Award for the Caltech volunteer community ash study on the 2025 Eaton Fire. He and other Caltech researchers from the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences presented research at the first annual LA Fires Research Conference hosted by UCLA on January 14.
- Welcome to Caltech:
Lucas Fagan
On January 5, Lucas joined Caltech as a research scientist in the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, where he'll work on building reinforcement learning agents to solve research-level math problems. Prior to this role, Lucas was a visiting student at Caltech and earned his PhD in math from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
- Celebrating a promotion:
Tye Welch
On December 1, Tye was promoted to associate vice president for Audit Services and Institute Compliance, where he previously served as senior director of compliance and interim associate vice president. In this new role, Tye will direct the annual internal audit and compliance plans, facilitate the Institute's enterprise risk management program, and direct numerous advisory projects.