American Exceptionalism: President Thomas F. Rosenbaum on the Importance of Fundamental Discovery

by Andrew Moseman  

Every piece of the nation’s complex science and technology ecosystem is necessary to maintain American exceptionalism, said Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum during a recent appearance on the podcast Betting on America by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

“America has a very special approach where you have the movement of ideas and people across various boundaries. … Universities [are] dedicated to fundamental discovery, producing a workforce that goes on—some in academia, a lot in industry. You have industry efforts which are complementary and pick up a lot of the ideas. And then you have a national infrastructure through the national labs, and you have of course boundaries here, which are not always porous but work reasonably well, and they need attention. But I think it's a mistake to think that these are all separate portions or that they can substitute for each other completely. The truth is somewhere in between, and we have to constantly work on making sure that that ecosystem is vibrant.”

Speaking with host Navin Girishankar, Rosenbaum gave a number of examples of how Caltech research has sparked new discoveries and innovations. John Hopfield, winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics, was trying to understand the biology and chemistry of the brain during his time at Caltech and, later, Princeton University, when he came up with the idea of neural networks. His insights, though the power of the innovation ecosystem, have come to underlie modern advances in AI and machine learning.

Carver Mead, the Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Emeritus, undertook the basic research that allowed computer chips to go from having only one transistor to millions. That advance, Rosenbaum noted, also required a handoff from academia to national labs and industry. Asking for efficiency in the stewardship of government resources is “perfectly reasonable,” he said, but added that it is also crucial to take a long-term view of what the country and the world gets out of investing in basic research, especially at a time when those investments are being called into question.

“If you do not ask big questions, then you're not going to get big answers. You're not going to develop the industries of the future and the attractive aspects of science that motivate young people. That requires a long-term investment. You talked about the fact of being inspired by the Apollo missions. Where are those long-term big-vision investments these days? I think they're fewer and far between, and so I actually worry a lot about that. It's something that's made America great.

We've been one of the few places in the world that's been able to do this. Who else really could have gone and landed on the moon in that way? Who else could, if we decide to do it, pick up rocks off Mars that may have indications that microbial life existed on another planet? It changes the whole notion of humanity's place in the universe. And, finally, … if we do not have these inspiring projects, why will the brightest kids decide to choose science? Why will they be motivated to learn, put in all the hard work and then contribute to society? Ultimately, it's all about people.”

And, he says, the people undertaking basic research at Caltech are doing so at a remarkable time in history.

“This is a fabulous time to be doing science. The questions are profound, and the tools are amazing. … We now know about thousands of planets orbiting other suns, and with the right tools, we should be able to interrogate their atmospheres and see if there are signs of life. We also can look deep back into time, far out in space, not only with optical and radio telescopes, but also now using gravitational wave detection. And gravitational waves, along with the electromagnetic spectrum, are the only two ways that information can travel across the universe at the speed of light.

We now have a completely new window. We can look at events like massive black holes colliding and merging. We can see neutron stars merging, which has given rise to all the heavy elements. The gold and platinum on Earth are the product of those types of collisions and also supernova explosions. We really are stardust, and we can figure out, in fact, how we became who we are in that fashion.”

Watch the full podcast episode at the CSIS YouTube page.