Jacob Margolis
has covered the Palisades and Eaton fires since Day One.
Published January 9, 2026 5:00 AM
Nature is bouncing back
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LAist
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Topline:
Nature moves fast, especially when there are large patches of open soil, sunlight and water to feed recovery. And recovery is what we're starting to see — both in good and bad ways — a year after fires tore through the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains.
Why it matters: The destruction of last year’s January fires was devastating. Not just in how they leveled more than 16,000 structures and took at least 31 lives, but also how they stripped bare landscapes that many Southern Californians had become familiar with and had found solace visiting for decades.
What's next: Time will tell whether invasive or native plants will have the upper hand. But some early signs are encouraging.
Read on ... to see and learn about what's sprouting in Southern California's mountains.
The destruction of last year’s January fires was devastating. Not just in how they leveled more than 16,000 structures and took at least 31 lives, but also how they stripped bare landscapes that many Southern Californians had become familiar with and had found solace visiting for decades. Hillsides that we’d long seen covered in dense green chaparral and coastal sage scrub were turned to ash, with the charred carcasses of native plants left behind.
However, nature moves fast, especially when there are large patches of open soil, sunlight and water to feed recovery. And recovery is what we're starting to see — both in good and bad ways.
“Recovery begins in the first growing season,” said Jon Keeley, research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Listen
48:34
Where is LA a year after the fires? Checking in with survivors, rebuilding and nature
On recent trips to the Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountains, where the Palisades and Eaton fires burned a year ago, the signs are sprouting.
Manzanitas and oaks are regrowing from the bases of large plants that burned. Smaller, fast-growing showy pentstemon, hairy yerba santa and the pustule-causing poodle-dog bush are thriving now that competition has been removed.
But so are invasive plants like wild oats, bromes and mustard, which account for some of the green up.
What's growing?
A year after the fires, here are the plants you can see in the Eaton and Palisades burn scars.
Invasive Spanish brome growing in the Eaton Fire burn scar in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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A year after the Eaton Fire, new growth is sprouting from the base of badly burned plants.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Poodle-dog bush, often found on post-fire landscapes, grows in the San Gabriel Mountains in December. Don't touch!
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Pines scorched by the Eaton Fire near the Mount Wilson radio towers in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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Oak resprouts from the base of a larger plant that burned in the Eaton Fire.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Penstemon growing in the Eaton Fire burn scar in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Dried out brome in the Eaton Fire burn scar in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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California sagebrush sprouts in the Palisades Fire burn scar in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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Invasive plants are popping up in rocky, often disturbed areas along trails burned by the Palisades Fire.
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Jacob Margolis
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Lupine seen growing in the Santa Monica Mountains in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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Goldenbush pops up among filaree in the Santa Monica Mountains in December 2025.
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Jacob Margolis
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Whether invasive species or natives take root long term depends on a variety of factors, including the age of the plants when they burned and how soon the area burns again, Keeley said.
Some of the Palisades Fire area hadn’t burned in about 60 years, according to state records, which may mean healthy native-plant recovery over the long term.
Walking the area recently, I saw native California sage brush, goldenbush and long leaf bush lupine, with some invasive grasses mixed in.
The Santa Monica Mountains, photographed from Mullholland Drive, on Jan. 21, 2025, just weeks after the Palisades Fire.
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Jacob Margolis
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In December 2025, the Santa Monica Mountains are green again, though non-native grasses fill quite a bit of the open space.
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Jacob Margolis
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Higher up in the San Gabriels, where the Eaton Fire burn scar has some overlap with the Bobcat (2020) and Station (2009) fires, native plants that have weathered repeated blazes may struggle to recover.
“If the fire occurs in areas that had burned within the last 15 to 25 years, then there's a good chance you're going to lose species," Keeley said. "And if you lose those species, they're replaced by non-native grasses.”
When fire occurs too frequently, native plant seedbanks can be destroyed, making recovery unlikely.
“ We've looked now at 65, 75, something like that, sites around the state over five years, and the pattern is pretty common,” Keeley said.
The nonnative grasses that replace native shrubs can often dry out and catch fire more easily than heartier natives. Shortening the interval between when wildfires can spread across a landscape, further challenging recovery. It’s a pattern that’s been documented across California — from the deserts to the mountains to the coastal hillsides.
Hope for native plants — and hard work
Even where invasive species have taken over, the hard work of conservation can help bring back natives. But fire is an ever-present threat, as Tree People learned.
For the past four years, the environmental conservation organization has been working to help reestablish native species near Castaic Lake. The work was arduous, with volunteers removing invasive plants across a 25-acre site and planting native oaks. And they were seeing good progress — until Jan. 22, 2025, when the Hughes Fire charred more than 10,000 acres, including their work area.
Oak sprouts from the base of a slim trunk in March 2025.
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Alyssa Walker
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Tree People
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A young oak puts out new growth in September 2025.
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Alyssa Walker
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Tree People
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“We brought the team out, and everyone was just kind of speechless,” said Alyssa Walker, Tree People’s associate director of conservation.
The site where they’d planted thousands of trees and worked for years was devoid of green.
But they didn’t give up. They watered seedlings they thought had the best chance of survival.
It's working.
They’re seeing the best recovery in areas where they did the most invasive plant clearance, Walker said. The baby oaks have also done remarkably well, as fire-adapted oak trees often do. And sawtooth golden bush, sunflowers, yerba santa and sugarbush, among others, are all making a comeback.
In the areas that had a lower density of invasive prior to the fire, native chamise can be seen regrowing about a year after the Hughes Fire.
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Alyssa Walker
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Tree People
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In an area dominated by invasive annual plants, invasive plants have come back.
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Alyssa Walker
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Tree People
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“We've seen things grow back, if not to their existing size, like beyond,” Walker said.
Native plants in areas that had a higher density of invasive plants before the fire are growing slower because of all of the extra competition.
What about mountain lions?
This uncollared mountain lion's habitat appears to be east of the 405 Freeway. Video captured on the morning of Sept. 7, 2019, shows it chasing P-61 in the area east of the freeway.
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National Park Service
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Recent data gathered by the National Park Service in the Santa Monica Mountains area shows that since the Palisades Fire, at least one mountain lion, P-125, appears to be avoiding the burned area.
How other mountain lions are behaving is not yet clear, but the Woolsey Fire — which burned nearly 100,000 acres, including in the Santa Monica Mountains — offers insights into lion behavior after large fires.
After that 2018 fire, mountain lions favored areas that hadn’t burned and still had dense vegetative cover they could use to stay hidden and stalk deer, according to tracking data gathered by the Park Service over 15 months after the Woolsey Fire.
The fire squeezed the territorial cats into even smaller areas that are already fragmented by urban development.
“When you look at their post-fire behavior, because so much of the Santa Monicas were burned … they engaged in some riskier behaviors than they may have beforehand,” said Seth Riley, chief wildlife ecologist for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
That included crossing roads, one of the deadlier activities for mountain lions in Southern California. As was the case with P-61, who lived in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains.
P-61 crossed the 405 Freeway in the Sepulveda Pass, which is the first and only time that Riley and his colleagues had seen one of their collared lions cross that freeway. When the male lion reached Bel Air, he encountered another male lion, which chased him up a tree. Twenty minutes later, P-61 was killed by a car — crossing the 405 Freeway again.
Of the 11 lions that Riley and his colleagues were tracking around the Woolsey Fire, three died. P-61 was one.
P-74, they assume, got caught in the fire. Another, P-64, who lived in the Simi Hills and fled when the fire came through, was found dead two weeks later with badly burned paws. He chose to head back into the burned area instead of fleeing into neighborhoods full of people, Riley said.
When will normal return?
The Santa Monica Mountains, bisected by Mulholland Drive, about a year after the Palisades Fire. The area on the left was burned by the fire, while the area on the right, full of native vegetation, has not burned since 1944, according to Cal Fire records.
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Jacob Margolis
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I met Lawrence Szabo from Venice on a trail in the Santa Monica Mountains in mid-December. He was looking out across a canyon that had started to green up after heavy rains. We were just down the way from an oak tree that serves as a landmark for hikers and cyclists.
“ I've always viewed that oak tree as kind of my chapel,” he said. “I think that's what was the heaviest part of the fires. Not knowing whether it was still there. And then, when I turned the corner the first time and I saw it there, it pulled a tear, and I felt like we could keep going.”
Over the next 10 years, assuming invasive plants don’t take over, native plants will repopulate and spread. And in several decades our hillsides could once again be filled with the dense and beautiful chaparral and coastal sage scrub many of us grew up with.
Frank Stoltze
is a veteran reporter who covers local politics and examines how democracy is and, at times, is not working.
Published September 14, 2026 6:48 PM
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman has missed nearly 3,000 votes since being elected in 2020.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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Topline
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman has missed nearly 3,000 votes since she was first elected in 2020, according to an analysis by LAist, a number that has been criticized by her opponent in the upcoming mayoral race.
The details: A closer look at data from the L.A. city clerk reveals Raman ranks in the middle of the pack of the 15-member council when it comes to votes missed. She was eighth among her colleagues when it came to votes missed so far this year. Last year she ranked third. In 2024, she ranked sixth.
The vast majority of those votes were unanimous or near unanimous among the other council members, meaning her vote on those matters would not have changed the outcomes.
Criticism: The campaign of her mayoral opponent incumbent Karen Bass has stressed that the missed votes matter. "This isn't just missing a few votes, it's about six years of Nithya Raman not showing up — for constituents wanting encampments outside of schools cleaned up or voting to make it cheaper to film here,” said Alex Stack, Bass’ campaign spokesperson.
Conflicting meetings: Raman’s campaign said she was officially excused from many of the meetings because she was appointed to represent L.A. on the board of the Air Quality Management District, which is charged with reducing local air pollution and improving public health. Bass appointed her to the board.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman has missed nearly 3,000 votes since she was first elected in 2020, according to an analysis by LAist — a number that has been criticized by her opponent in the upcoming mayoral race.
A closer look at data from the L.A. city clerk reveals Raman ranks in the middle of the pack of the 15-member council when it comes to votes missed. She was eighth among her colleagues when it came to votes missed so far this year.
Last year she ranked third. In 2024, she ranked sixth.
The vast majority of those votes were unanimous or near-unanimous among the other council members, meaning her vote on those matters would not have changed the outcomes.
Still, the campaign of her mayoral opponent — incumbent Karen Bass — has stressed that the missed votes matter.
"This isn't just missing a few votes, it's about six years of Nithya Raman not showing up — for constituents wanting encampments outside of schools cleaned up or voting to make it cheaper to film here,” said Alex Stack, Bass’ campaign spokesperson.
“If you don't show up for your job, you shouldn't get a promotion," he said.
Bass brought up Raman’s City Council meeting absences during a debate earlier this month, and the campaign has since set up a website, titled NoShowNithya, devoted to highlighting those absences.
Raman’s campaign said she was officially excused from many of the meetings because she was appointed to represent L.A. on the Air Quality Management District board, which is charged with reducing local air pollution and improving public health.
Those meetings happened at the same time as some council meetings. The board meets on the last Friday of every month. The City Council meets three times a week — on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
“The data shows that Nithya’s attendance is in line with other council members,” said campaign spokesperson Liz Garcia. “These desperate attacks from Mayor Bass will not distract Nithya from campaigning to make LA a city that works and is affordable for everyone."
The numbers
City Councilmember Adrin Nazarian has missed the most votes so far this year — 393 — compared to Raman, who was ranked eighth at 233. Last year, Councilmember Monica Rodriguez ranked first with 631 and Raman ranked third with 556.
In 2024, Rodriguez ranked first with 741. Raman ranked sixth with 575.
Bass isn’t the only one who believes this is an issue.
“Attendance at meetings isn't ceremonial,” said Pomona College Associate Professor of Politics Sara Sadhwani. “It’s where amendments and laws get shaped, it's where budgets get fought over and it's where constituents' priorities either make it into policy or they don’t. So missing that work means missing those leverage points.”
“Generally, the expectation is that you show up for work,” she added.
In January, Bass removed Raman from the Air Quality Management District AQMD board, a role she’d been serving in since 2022 when she was appointed by then-Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Nazarian was appointed to the air quality board to replace Raman.
As for Raman’s absences, her campaign sought to turn the tables on Bass. It pointed to the incumbent’s absences from commission meetings of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
Since joining, the mayor has skipped more than half of the meetings held by the L.A. Homeless Services Authority Commission, according to an LAist review of attendance records, despite the mayor’s insistence that homelessness is her No. 1 issue.
The Raman campaign also pointed to Bass’ absence during the early hours of the Palisades Fire when she was on a diplomatic trip to Ghana.
"This is ironic coming from a mayor who was missing during our city’s most devastating emergencies [and] failed to show up for more than half of LAHSA homelessness meetings,” Garcia said.
Bass’ office told LAist that, regardless of her attendance record, she has kept up to date on what LAHSA has been doing. The regional agency is responsible for managing the region’s homelessness response.
Earlier this month, following LAist’s reporting, Bass announced she was stepping down from the LAHSA Commission.
“It cuts both ways, and it's a reminder that both of these candidates are political insiders and have a track record with the city,” Sadhwani said.
Too many meetings?
The issue of missed meetings points to another question: Does the City Council meet too often? The city charter mandates that the panel meet three times a week. Its counterpart on the county level — the Board of Supervisors — meets once a week even though its budget is far larger.
In addition to deciding who will be L.A.’s mayor, voters in November will decide whether the number of mandated weekly City Council meetings should be modified. The council has placed a proposed change to the city charter that would require only one meeting per week.
The winners of the 2026 Emmy Awards were announced Monday night for shows that aired between June 2025 and May 2026.
The context: Last year's winner for best drama, The Pitt, was up against Pluribus, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, The Diplomat, and more. On the comedy side, two Apple TV newcomers — Widow's Bay and Margo's Got Money Troubles— were up against a slate of returning nominees including Hacks, nominated for its fifth and final season, and The Bear, nominated for its fourth season.
Read on... for an updated list of winners as they're announced.
Updated September 14, 2026 at 21:26 PM ET
Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay is hosting the Emmy Awards on Monday night. The ceremony is on NBC and Peacock starting at 8 p.m. PT, 5 p.m. ET.
Last year's winner for best drama, The Pitt, is up against Pluribus, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, The Diplomat, and more. On the comedy side, two Apple TV newcomers — Widow's Bay and Margo's Got Money Troubles— are up against a slate of returning nominees including Hacks, nominated for its fifth and final season, and The Bear, nominated for its fourth season. (Eligible shows aired between June 2025 and May 2026.)
Noah Kahan is set to perform "Bridge Over Troubled Water" for the In Memoriam segment.
We'll be updating this page with winners in bold as they come in.
Outstanding writing for a comedy series
WINNER: Katie Dippold, Widow's Bay Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary Tim Robinson, Zach Kanin, The Chair Company Michael Patrick King, Lisa Kudrow, The Comeback Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky, Hacks Anthony King, Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat
WINNER: Tom Pelphrey, Task Patrick Ball, The Pitt Billy Crudup, The Morning Show Shawn Hatosy, The Pitt Gerran Howell, The Pitt Jack Lowden, Slow Horses Carlos Manuel-Vesga, Pluribus
WINNER: The Traitors Dancing With the Stars RuPaul's Drag Race Survivor Top Chef
Outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series
WINNER: Stephen Root, Widow's Bay Colman Domingo, The Four Seasons Paul W. Downs, Hacks Nick Offerman, Margo's Got Money Troubles Michael Urie, Shrinking Tyler James Williams, Abbott Elementary
Outstanding supporting actress in a limited or anthology series or movie
WINNER: Linda Cardellini, DTF St. Louis Dakota Fanning, All Her Fault Laurie Metcalf, Monster: The Ed Gein Story Joy Sunday, DTF St. Louis Youn Yuh-jung, Beef Constance Zimmer, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette
Outstanding supporting actor in a limited or anthology series or movie
Outstanding directing for a comedy series Randall Einhorn, Abbott Elementary Christopher Storer, The Bear Andrew DeYoung, The Chair Company Lucia Aniello, Hacks Mary Lou Belli, The Ms. Pat Show Hiro Murai, Widow's Bay
Outstanding directing for a drama series Salli Richardson-Whitfield, The Gilded Age Hanelle M. Culpepper, Paradise Noah Wyle, The Pitt Vince Gilligan, Pluribus Saul Metzstein, Slow Horses Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Task
Outstanding writing for a drama series Peter Ackerman, Debora Cahn, The Diplomat Kirsten Pierre-Geyfman, R. Scott Gemmill, The Pitt Valerie Chu, The Pitt Vince Gilligan, Pluribus Will Smith, Slow Horses Brad Ingelsby, Task
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The Supreme Court has sided against President Donald Trump, rejecting his efforts to enact new mail-in voting restrictions for the midterm election.
The context: The ruling released Monday by the high court means the U.S. Postal Service is expected to continue delivering ballots as usual. Voting by mail has already begun in states including Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin, with more soon to follow — including Western states such as Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, where elections are held primarily or fully with mail ballots.
Why it matters: Under the still-blocked USPS plan, which followed an executive order by Trump, states would have had to turn over lists of voters' names and addresses and have certain specific barcodes on ballot envelopes in order to have them delivered by the mailing agency.
How we got here: Earlier this month, a federal judge in Boston had issued a preliminary injunction against USPS, blocking the mailing agency from imposing those new ballot requirements on states. The judge found the requirements are likely illegal because the Postal Service has no authority to control mail-in voting. Now, a majority of the Supreme Court decided to keep that injunction in place.
Updated September 14, 2026 at 21:18 PM ET
The Supreme Court has ruled against President Trump, rejecting his efforts to enact new mail-in voting restrictions for the midterm election.
The ruling released Monday by the high court means the U.S. Postal Service is expected to continue delivering ballots as usual.
Voting by mail has already begun in states including Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin, with more soon to follow — including Western states such as Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, where elections are held primarily or fully with mail ballots.
Under the still-blocked USPS plan, which followed an executive order by Trump, states would have had to turn over lists of voters' names and addresses and have certain specific barcodes on ballot envelopes in order to have them delivered by the mailing agency.
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Boston issued a preliminary injunction against USPS, blocking it from imposing those new ballot requirements on states. The judge found the requirements are likely illegal because the Postal Service has no authority to control mail-in voting. A second federal judge issued another preliminary injunction late Sunday.
Now, a majority of the Supreme Court decided to keep that injunction in place. The court said the Trump administration was unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge.
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a short concurring opinion, saying "there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service's statutory authority." But, he added, "applying the rule in the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act because state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections."
Indeed several Republican state election officials, including from the mostly vote-by-mail state of Utah, signed on to a Supreme Court brief, warning that any attempt to carry out the USPS plan now "will almost certainly lead to mistakes, delays, and confusion for both voters and election officials."
Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the order, and would have granted the administration's request to pause the Boston-based judge's ruling.
While the USPS plan remains paused for the midterms, the legal fight will likely continue over how the agency may try to implement it for future federal elections.
For now, challengers of the proposal are celebrating their victory.
"Today, the Supreme Court refused to allow the federal government to throw our elections into chaos just weeks before Election Day. The Postal Service exists to deliver Americans' mail — not to rewrite election rules, demand voters' personal information, or decide which ballots make it through the system," Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters, said in a statement.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James said in a separate statement that she was "truly relieved" by the high court's ruling.
"Voters should never have to wonder whether a ballot they legally cast will be counted because the federal government suddenly changed the rules," said James, whose state was among the 24 mainly Democratic-led states that sued alongside Washington, D.C. "We will keep fighting to make sure every eligible ballot is counted come November. Now, I encourage all eligible Americans to get out and vote — and vote early."
Trump said he issued the call for USPS to change its rule for mail ballots as a way to stop illegal voting by non-U.S. citizens, a problem that many studies and audits show is extremely uncommon. For this legal fight over the USPS plan, the administration's lawyers have provided the courts with no evidence of mail-voting fraud.
Trump has been a vocal critic of the way about one-third of voters cast ballots in the lasttwo federal elections. In 2024, the share of voters who reported casting ballots by mail was higher among Democrats (37%) than Republicans (24%), according to a national survey by the MIT Election Data and Science Lab.
In a social media post last year, Trump said he is "going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS" and claimed that "ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING."
Faheem Khan
is an Associate Producer for AirTalk and FilmWeek, assisting with live radio production and in-person events.
Published September 14, 2026 4:37 PM
Caltech president Ray Jayawardhana at his announcement ceremony at Caltech in Pasadena on January 6, 2026.
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Christina House
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Los Angeles Times / Getty Images
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Topline:
Ray Jayawardhana — or Ray Jay for short — has served as Caltech's president officially since the beginning of July. His expertise in astrophysics, coupled with extensive experience in university administration, is what he's using to lead the school while continuing his own research. He sat down with AirTalk, LAist 89.3's daily news show, saying he's optimistic about the school's future and relationship with the Jet Propulsion Lab.
Why it matters: NASA — which now owns and sponsors JPL — is opening its contracting to other research institutions for the first time, which could mean a bidding war. Losing the contract for Caltech would mean losing a stream of federal funding valued at $3 billion per year.
What's next? Jayawardhana said he’s confident Caltech and JPL’s partnership will continue, saying that the university's value proposition is unrivaled. NASA’s current contract with Caltech expires in September 2028.
Listen to the full conversation with Caltech's new president
Listen
22:22
New Caltech president Ray Jayawardhana
Ray Jayawardhana, a seasoned astrophysicist and university administrator, officially took over as Caltech’s 10th president on July 1.
The newly appointed president sat down with Larry Mantle on AirTalk, LAist 89.3’s daily news program, to talk about his plans for the future of the esteemed university.
Ray Jay and Caltech — it was in the cosmos
Jayawardhana, who goes by “Ray Jay,” told Larry he was always interested in the cosmos growing up.
He shared that, as a teenager in Sri Lanka, he wrote to the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) — NASA's leading space exploration center, which is managed by Caltech — to ask for images from the Voyager space missions they were conducting during the 1980s.
“I waited impatiently for a response, and one day, this large envelope with an oversized wheel of books arrived with a set of images of the outer planets and their moons,” he said. “That just delighted me to no end.”
Saturn and its satellites Tethys (outer left), Enceladus (inner left) and Mimas (right of rings) are seen in this mosaic of images taken by NASA's Voyager 1 on Oct. 30, 1980 from a distance of 18 million kilometers (11 million miles).
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This view of Jupiter was taken by Voyager 1. This image was taken through color filters and recombined to produce the color image. This photo was assembled from three black and white negatives by the Image Processing Lab at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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This picture of Neptune was produced from images taken by NASA’s Voyager 2 in the summer of 1989 as it became the first spacecraft to fly by the planet.
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Today, he’s the first South Asian American to lead Caltech, overseeing the operations of the same Jet Propulsion Lab he wrote to in the '80s.
How he came to the U.S.
After attending St. John’s College in Sri Lanka, he decided to pursue higher education in the United States. He earned an undergraduate degree from Yale and subsequently his doctorate in astronomy from Harvard, quickly establishing himself as one of the world’s most renowned astrophysicists.
He previously held positions at Cornell University and Johns Hopkins.
Exoplanetary president
Aside from his main focus as the school’s head of administration, Ray Jay continues his own research exploring the formation of planets and stars, saying it keeps him intellectually engaged.
He's part of a team that works with the James Webb Space Telescope to observe and characterize so-called exoplanets — planets around other stars — with an eye toward the potential for life beyond Earth.
He’s confident in Caltech’s future with JPL
Universities like Caltech are on rocky terrain amid sweeping federal government cuts of public funding for scientific research.
Additionally, JPL's future is uncertain. NASA — which now owns and sponsors JPL — is opening its contracting to other research institutions for the first time, which could mean a bidding war.
The entrance to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
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Robyn Beck
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Losing the contract for Caltech would mean losing a stream of federal funding valued at $3 billion per year.
Jayawardhana said he’s confident Caltech and JPL’s partnership will continue, saying that the university's value proposition is unrivaled.
“It’s not only about the self-interest in continuing to ensure there's federal and public funding for research, it's also about enriching humanity,” he said.
NASA’s current contract with Caltech expires in September 2028.
