Alumnus Alan Breakstone (BS '72) and his wife, Evelyn, endow a scholarship to provide support for young scholars.

Alan Breakstone dreamed of becoming a scientist from a very young age. After physics became a favorite subject in high school, Caltech helped him turn his interests into a career. In honor of his undergraduate experience, Alan and his wife, Evelyn, recently established the endowed Alan M. Breakstone and Evelyn M. Breakstone Scholarship.

"Caltech has helped me very much, from my education to my career and the things that were made available to me through those connections, so I've always felt like giving back in some way," Alan says.

Pursuing New Horizons—from California to CERN and Back Again

According to Alan, his time at Caltech began with opportunities to connect with the campus community. As a first-year student, he was active in the ASCIT musical production and was the librarian for Fleming House.

"I studied a fair amount but was surprised by how much free time I had," he remembers. "There were all sorts of extracurricular things I could do that I very much enjoyed."

By senior year, he was focused on more academic pursuits, serving as a teaching assistant for a physics class alongside theoretical physicist and former Caltech provost Steven Koonin (BS '72), who is the founding director of the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress. The course grew in popularity with first-year students, according to Alan, and featured a team of lecturers including the late Tom Tombrello, the Robert H. Goddard Professor of Physics and chair of the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy from 1998 to 2008.

"It was just so much fun teaching those students who were totally brilliant, and I really missed them when I left," Alan says.

After earning a PhD in physics from UC Santa Cruz, Alan went on to a postdoctoral fellowship at Iowa State University, through which he had the opportunity to work at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in Geneva, Switzerland.

"That was very pivotal in my life because, first of all, it was a wonderful experience professionally, and secondly, I met my wife in Geneva," he says. "There was a big American community there that put on a fantastic firework party for the Fourth of July. We met at a party at her house nearby. Soon after, we started going together."

Upon returning to the Bay Area together, Evelyn became a business manager for an entrepreneur in the health care industry, while Alan pursued a career in physics working for the University of Hawaii (while still based in California) and, later, in the semiconductor equipment industry.

"The general education I received at Caltech was just superior to other schools, and I'm sure that helped me throughout my career," he says.

Staying Connected

Now retired, the Breakstones continue to travel—they have six trips planned for 2025—and have remained close to the Caltech community through the years, attending more than 140 events and gatherings.

The Breakstones

"The first thing I did when I moved back to California was to get interested in doing things for the Caltech Alumni Association," recalls Alan. "I was an area chair, and my job was to recruit volunteers to make the phone calls and solicit donations. Later, I joined the Associates and was on the Associates' Northern California Committee."

Through their Associates membership, the Breakstones have gone on many educational trips with the group, including an excursion to the Galápagos Islands and a visit to volcanoes and the W. M. Keck Observatory, a joint effort of Caltech and the University of California, in Hawaii.

"We've also gone on three eclipse trips with Caltech," he adds. "The first one was in Oregon, the second in Chile, and then this last one was in Texas.

As regular donors through the Caltech Fund and the Associates, and as members of the Torchbearers Legacy Society, the Breakstones decided last year that they wanted to establish a scholarship. Their generous donation supports the Initiative for Caltech Students, a fundraising campaign to support the student experience in areas such as scholarships and fellowships as well as career advising and health and wellness.

Undergraduate scholarships are essential to help the Institute attract the most talented students and ensure that financial need is not a barrier to enrollment. In 2024, 75 percent of students graduated with zero debt and first-year students in the 2024–25 academic school year received an average of $73,000 in aid.

"I've always felt very strongly that education is something we desperately need in this country," says Alan. "I wanted to give back to the undergraduate experience, and scholarship support is one of the ways we can help."