Ray Jayawardhana (Yale Astronomy & Physics, BS 1994) named President of Caltech

Congratulations to Ray Jayawardhana ’94—one of Yale’s standout astronomy and physics majors of the early 1990s who has been named the 10th president of the California Institute of Technology, assuming the role on July 1, 2026.

A Yale College graduate with a B.S. in astronomy and physics, Jayawardhana has gone on to become a leading astrophysicist and academic statesman. He currently serves as the chief academic officer of Johns Hopkins University and is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy, widely respected for his work on stars and exoplanets as well as for bringing science to broader public audiences.

Those who knew him in the Yale Department of Astronomy are unsurprised. As Professor Emeritus Richard Larson recalls:

I knew Ray Jayawardhana (‘RayJay’) very well when he was an Astronomy major at Yale between 1990 and 1994. He was an exceedingly enterprising student from Sri Lanka and our best student at the time. He was unstoppable as a Yale student and has been unstoppable ever since.”

From his days as a driven Yale undergraduate to the presidency of one of the world’s premier scientific institutions, Jayawardhana’s trajectory reflects the kind of intellectual ambition and leadership that Yale takes pride in.