Jennifer Jackson Named Vice Provost

Jennifer Jackson, the William E. Leonhard Professor of Mineral Physics, has been named a vice provost at Caltech. She will succeed Kaushik Bhattacharya, the Howell N. Tyson, Sr., Professor of Mechanics and Materials Science, who has held the role since 2016. Jackson will oversee sponsored research policies and procedures, responsible conduct of research, conflicts of interest and commitment, corporate research collaborations, academic computing resources, and the Caltech Library, among other responsibilities.

"I am taking on this role at an important time for higher education, and research universities in particular, where there is a responsibility that we effectively communicate the value of university-led research and the importance of maintaining intellectual independence in that work," Jackson says. "In my role as vice provost, I will help the Institute build upon on its existing research strengths and its transformative capacity to innovate and discover."

Jackson received her PhD at the University of Illinois in 2005 before coming to Caltech, where she was named assistant professor in 2007, professor in 2012, and Leonhard Professor in 2020. Her own research focuses on materials in deep Earth and other planetary interiors. She studies the role of minerals in shaping processes inside Earth, from the deepest parts of the metallic core to volcanic systems near the surface.

In pursuing this work, Jackson experiments with materials under extreme conditions using diamond-anvil pressure vessels, infrared lasers, and synchrotron-based X-ray scattering techniques. Most recently, she has been developing unconventional geophysical techniques that involve infrasound detection of seismicity from aerial platforms in order to study the interiors of planetary bodies such as Venus.

"Since joining the Caltech faculty in 2007, Jennifer has led a vibrant research program directed toward understanding the behavior of minerals under extreme conditions characteristic of planetary interiors, work that has been recognized by her election to fellowship in the Mineralogical Society of America," says Caltech Provost David Tirrell.

Tirrell expressed his gratitude to Bhattacharya, who will remain at Caltech as Tyson professor, for "partnership and service," adding, "Kaushik has served brilliantly as Vice Provost for the past nine years. … Kaushik has played key roles in establishing the Schmidt Academy for Software Engineering, Caltech's high performance computing cluster and software accelerator, the Caltech-AWS Center for Quantum Computing, the Caltech Innovation Center, the Richard Merkin Center for Pure and Applied Mathematics, with its attendant renovation of the eighth floor of Caltech Hall and the move of the American Institute of Mathematics to Pasadena, our growing partnership with the Carnegie Institution for Science, and the Caltech Postdoctoral Scholars Office."

Jackson notes that she is especially excited to provide support to Caltech's libraries, ensuring the community has continued access to new scientific literature, and also to safeguard the Institute's historic archives. In addition, she says, her new role provides opportunities to interact with people from all over Caltech.

"This position will allow me to interact with a lot more faculty across campus and learn about what they're researching and what their challenges are," she says. "Inevitably, I see it as a very positive impact on my research program too. Naturally, when scientists interact, and especially at Caltech, there are new ideas that come up. That's the unpredictable nature of research, and Caltech is a very special and unique environment."