The program is intended to support high-risk and potentially high-return small-scale experimental projects aimed at new ambitious discoveries beyond the current frontier of fundamental physics. "Small-scale" refers to table-top size experiments or to ones that could fit in a typical university physics research lab.

NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), led by Caltech and managed by JPL, turned 10 years old in June. This space telescope detects high-energy X-ray light and studies some of the most energetic objects and processes in the universe. The mission’s principal investigator is Fiona Harrison, the Harold A. Rosen Professor of Physics and the Kent and Joyce Kresa Leadership Chair of the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy at Caltech.

The Caltech Planet Finder Academy debuted with a weeklong session in July and will continue over eight Saturdays during the school year. Program participants will tour Caltech laboratories and local observatories, receive counseling on college applications and admissions processes, and apply the skills they're learning to help scientists search for exoplanets.