Engineer Ross M. Brown, who built and sold an industrial conglomerate for more than $400 million, is donating nearly all his wealth to promising mid-career chemistry and physics professors at a range of universities.
Caltech announced Friday morning that engineering entrepreneur and alumnus Ross M. Brown is donating $400 million to the university to support fundamental science research. However, there’s an unusual element to the generous gift, called the Ross Brown Investigators Program: It’s designed to support mid-career physics and chemistry professors–but the academics getting the financial awards won’t be at Caltech.
This is the first large gift of its kind where the recipient of the donation will turn around and give nearly all of it to faculty at other universities. “Caltech won't be eligible to receive any of the investigator awards, just because of the conflict of interest, nor will they be allowed to sit on the science advisory board. So it's really Caltech’s general interest in science itself that has led them to get to where they are,” explains Brown, who graduated from Caltech in 1956 with a degree in mechanical engineering and obtained a master's degree from the Pasadena, California university the following year.
Caltech will administer the program, while an independent review board will choose eight fellows annually from more than a dozen invited universities across the country. Each chosen investigator will receive a $2 million, five-year fellowship. Caltech will administer the program until 2070, assuming sufficient returns on invested funds.
Caltech announced Friday morning that engineering entrepreneur and alumnus Ross M. Brown is donating $400 million to the university to support fundamental science research. However, there’s an unusual element to the generous gift, called the Ross Brown Investigators Program: It’s designed to support mid-career physics and chemistry professors–but the academics getting the financial awards won’t be at Caltech.
This is the first large gift of its kind where the recipient of the donation will turn around and give nearly all of it to faculty at other universities. “Caltech won't be eligible to receive any of the investigator awards, just because of the conflict of interest, nor will they be allowed to sit on the science advisory board. So it's really Caltech’s general interest in science itself that has led them to get to where they are,” explains Brown, who graduated from Caltech in 1956 with a degree in mechanical engineering and obtained a master's degree from the Pasadena, California university the following year.
Caltech will administer the program, while an independent review board will choose eight fellows annually from more than a dozen invited universities across the country. Each chosen investigator will receive a $2 million, five-year fellowship. Caltech will administer the program until 2070, assuming sufficient returns on invested funds.
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00:00 On November 17th, the California Institute of Technology announced that alumnus Ross M. Brown
00:05 would be donating $400 million, nearly all of his fortune, to the university through what will be called
00:11 the Ross Brown Investigators Program, designed to support mid-level physics and chemistry professors
00:16 in their quest to take on bold initiatives.
00:18 But there's an unusual element to the generous gift.
00:22 The academics getting the financial awards won't be at Caltech.
00:25 Brown, who got his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Caltech in 1956
00:31 and a master's degree from the institute the following year, is now 88.
00:35 He founded industrial conglomerate Cryogenic Industries in 1973 and sold it for a reported nearly $440 million in 2017.
00:44 As to why he chose to donate so much of his fortune, Brown says,
00:49 "At some point, I had to decide how I was going to give back.
00:52 I didn't want to pass it on to my children because I might have a big risk of ruining their lives."
00:57 Brown, the father of seven children and grandfather of 16, adds,
01:02 "I've seen too many trust fund babies to ever want to do that to my kids."
01:06 How best to give away his fortune, then?
01:08 Brown wasn't sure at first. What he did know was he wanted to focus on physics and chemistry.
01:13 Brown told me the physical sciences are underfunded and because innovations in these fields have the biggest impact on the future.
01:20 So how did he start to narrow his focus?
01:22 In 2018, he went looking for further advice and contacted Mark Kastner,
01:26 then the president of the Science Philanthropy Alliance,
01:29 a non-profit group with the goal of encouraging more charitable donations in science.
01:33 Kastner suggested that Brown consider funding mid-level fundamental science professors.
01:39 Newly hired assistant professors of science at top research universities are well taken care of,
01:44 typically with a $5 million startup package.
01:47 But after they achieve tenure, those funds have been spent.
01:50 Tenured professors can apply for government grants,
01:53 but in Kastner's view, those are typically not enough for professors to try something different.
01:58 Over roughly 18 months of talking to people working in philanthropy,
02:02 Brown says he grew concerned about the sector.
02:05 He sees two problems, a foundation drifting from its original mission and overhead getting out of control.
02:11 Then someone suggested having a university with aligned interests run the program,
02:16 which would ideally solve both the mission drift and the cost control challenges.
02:21 This is the first large gift of its kind, where the recipient of the donation
02:25 will turn around and give nearly all of it to faculty at other universities.
02:30 Caltech won't be eligible to receive any of the investigator awards, Brown explains,
02:35 just because of the conflict of interest, nor will they be allowed to sit on the science advisory board.
02:40 So it's really in Caltech's general interest in science itself that has led them to get to where they are.
02:46 Caltech will administer the program, while an independent review board will choose eight fellows annually
02:51 from more than a dozen invited universities across the country.
02:55 Each chosen investigator will receive a $2 million, five-year fellowship.
03:00 Caltech aims to administer the program until 2070, assuming sufficient returns on invested funds.
03:06 Brown is bucking a trend in choosing to fund the physical sciences rather than the life sciences.
03:11 Brown says 85% of funding in the United States for basic research of some kind goes to life sciences.
03:17 Only 15% ends up in the physical sciences or non-life sciences.
03:21 Kastner points out that government funding in the two areas leans the same way.
03:26 If you look at government funding, it's also tilted very heavily towards biomedical research.
03:32 Brown admits this is a bit of a gamble, given that it's the first program like it.
03:37 But he's optimistic, adding, "If you could just get 25% of what you're putting in being foundational for somebody else's work later,
03:44 to make my grandchildren's life better, I'm for that."
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