The California Institute of Technology has a new boss, and he's bringing a serious space résumé - plus a childhood fan letter to JPL. Ray Jayawardhana officially begins today as Caltech's 10th president, succeeding Thomas Rosenbaum, who held the post since 2014. The announcement was made back on Jan. 6, but hey, academic transitions take time.

Caltech, founded in 1891, manages NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which itself began in 1936 when a bunch of grad students and rocket nerds started messing around with propulsion. Once NASA formed in 1958, JPL became the agency's first and only federally funded R&D center. So it's a big deal.

“Today, I’m honored to begin my service as Caltech’s 10th president,” Jayawardhana wrote in his first message to the community, adding that Caltech and JPL have long been “beacons of humanity’s most ambitious acts of exploration and discovery.” He plans to be a “fierce advocate” for the Institute's mission, invest in “blue-sky” ideas, enrich student experiences, and engage the public. Because apparently running a world-class research institution isn't enough - he also wants to be liked.

JPL Director Dave Gallagher is optimistic: “Dr. Jayawardhana steps into this role at a pivotal moment for Caltech, JPL, and NASA. We look forward to working closely with him on missions that will help define a new era of U.S. exploration.”

Jayawardhana comes from Johns Hopkins, where he was provost overseeing 10 schools and a bunch of interdisciplinary programs. Before that, he was the Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences at Cornell, and earlier a professor at University of Toronto, where he also served as senior adviser on science engagement. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard and a B.S. from Yale - so yes, he's qualified.

As an astrophysicist, Jayawardhana studies planets, stars, and brown dwarfs using telescopes like Keck Observatory (which Caltech co-manages) and the James Webb Space Telescope. He's a core science team member for Webb's NIRISS instrument and leads programs on exoplanet atmospheres. He'll keep doing research alongside his presidential duties, because why not?

“Time and again, I’ve been struck not only by the audacity and brilliance of the work underway here, but also by this community of creative and original thinkers who seem constitutionally incapable of leaving the hardest questions unanswered,” he wrote.

The appointment is a full-circle moment: as a “space-obsessed kid” in Sri Lanka, Jayawardhana wrote to JPL asking for images from Voyager and Viking missions. A few weeks later, a package arrived with a viewbook of Jupiter and Saturn. “I still remember the thrill of finding the manila envelope waiting for me … with the unmistakable JPL logo,” he said. Now he's the president of the place that runs JPL. Not bad.