A Decade of Discovery and a Now-Limitless Future
In 2009, the Resnick Sustainability Institute (RSI) was established at Caltech with a $30 million contribution from Stewart and Lynda Resnick and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and a vision to foster transformational advances in energy science and technology through research, education, and communication. An additional pledge by the Resnicks in 2014 created both the Resnick Institute Innovation Fund and the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Matching Program.
That vision has been realized through advances in the area of energy science and sustainable technology development, as well as in the recent announcement of an unprecedented $750 million pledge to Caltech from the Resnicks to support, in perpetuity, cutting-edge research into environmental sustainability.
"Science and bold creativity must unite to address the most pressing challenges facing energy, water, and sustainability," says Stewart Resnick, chairman and president of The Wonderful Company and a senior member of the Caltech Board of Trustees.
Since its founding, the RSI has supported researchers who develop ways to convert sunlight to renewable hydrogen and carbon-based fuels, and new technologies for generating ammonia and other commodity chemicals. RSI support has led to the discovery of best-in-class catalysts using abundant, non-toxic materials, and enabled researchers to push the efficiency limits of solar pho-tovoltaics and wind systems, advanced research into green chemistry, and helped to modernize the electricity grid.
RSI-supported research has also provided unprecedented insights into carbon-dioxide sequestration in the ocean, opening up a number of possible applications for removing carbon from the atmosphere, and created new techniques for treating wastewater and desalinating saltwater through solar-driven heating, electrochemistry, and the use of nano-structured materials.
During its first decade, the RSI provided seed funds to researchers throughout Caltech's divisions and funded 96 Resnick fellows (graduate students and postdoctoral scholars). Resnick fellows or fellow alums have founded a number of sustainability-focused companies or had projects licensed by existing startups.
"The RSI has shown remarkable progress," says RSI director Jonas C. Peters, Bren Professor of Chemistry. "This commitment from Lynda and Stewart places hope in science and technology, and also in Caltech, to help chart a more sustainable future for all of us."