Carnegie Institution for Science

More than 20 independent organizations were established through the philanthropy of Andrew Carnegie and feature his surname.

In 2024, the "Carnegie Institution for Science" officially adopted the name "Carnegie Science", a name which has been used informally since 2007 when they first changed the name from "Carnegie Institution of Washington" to "Carnegie Institution for Science".

 

 

It is proposed to found in the city of Washington, an institution which ... shall in the broadest and most liberal manner encourage investigation, research, and discovery [and] show the application of knowledge to the improvement of mankind

—Andrew Carnegie, January 28, 1902^[3]

When the United States joined World War II, Vannevar Bush was president of the Carnegie Institution. Several months prior to June 12, 1940, Bush persuaded President Franklin Roosevelt to create the National Defense Research Committee (later superseded by the Office of Scientific Research and Development) to coordinate the nation's scientific war effort. Bush housed the new agency in the Carnegie Institution's administrative headquarters at 16th and P Streets, Northwest, in Washington, D.C., converting its rotunda and auditorium into office cubicles. From this location, Bush supervised multiple projects, including the Manhattan Project. Carnegie scientists assisted with the development of the proximity fuze and mass production of penicillin.^{[4]: 77–79}

Composed of six scientific departments on the East and West Coasts, the Carnegie Institution for Science focuses on six topics:

• Astronomy at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (Washington, D.C.) and the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington (Pasadena, California, and Las Campanas, Chile)
• Earth and planetary science at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism and the Geophysical Laboratory (Washington, D.C.)
• Global Ecology at the Department of Global Ecology (Stanford, California),
• Genetics and developmental biology at the Department of Embryology (Baltimore, Maryland)
• Extreme states of matter at the Geophysical Laboratory.
• Plant science at the Department of Plant Biology (Stanford, California).

The Archaeology Department was dissolved^[5][6]

In 1920, the Eugenics Record Office, founded by Charles Davenport in 1910 in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, was merged with the Station for Experimental Evolution to become the Carnegie Institution's Department of Genetics. The Institution funded that laboratory until 1939; it employed Morris Steggerda, an American anthropologist who has collaborated with Davenport. The Carnegie Institution closed the department in 1944. The department's records were retained in a university library. Among its notable staff members are Nobel laureates Andrew Fire, Alfred Hershey, and Barbara McClintock.

 

In addition to the Department of Embryology, BioEYES is located at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Monash University in Melbourne, Australia; the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah; and the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. The Department of Global Ecology was established in 2002.^[7]

The Department of Plant Biology began as a desert laboratory in 1903 to study plants in their natural habitats. Over time, the research evolved to the study of photosynthesis. The department develops bioinformatics. It developed the Arabidopsis Information Resource, an online database for biological information on the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.^[8]

 

The Observatories were founded in 1904 as the Mount Wilson Observatory. Carnegie astronomers operate from the Las Campanas Observatory established in 1969. As Los Angeles encroached more on Mount Wilson, day-to-day operations there were transferred to the Mount Wilson Institute in 1986. The newest additions at Las Campanas was a twin 6.5-meter reflectors.^[9]

In 2020, the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism and Geophysical Lab merged to become the Earth and Planets Laboratory. The new department is still located on the organization's Broad Branch Road campus. John Mulchaey, an American astrophysicist, is the chair and director of the Carnegie Observatories.^[10]

In 2020, the Geophysical Lab and Department of Terrestrial Magnetism merged to become the Earth and Planets Laboratory. The new department is still located on the organization's Broad Branch Road campus. The Laboratory is a member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute.^[11] The Department of Terrestrial Magnetism was founded in 1904. They use two ships for magnetic observations: the Galilee was chartered in 1905, but it was unsuitable; later, Carnegie was built in 1909 and completed seven cruises to measure the Earth's magnetic field before it suffered an explosion and burned.^{[4]: 133–136}

In 1989, Carnegie President Maxine Singer founded Carnegie Academy for Science Education and First Light (CASE), a free Saturday science program for middle school students. The program teaches hands-on learning in science.

The Carnegie Institution's administrative offices were located at 1530 P St., Northwest, Washington, D.C., at the corner of 16th and P Streets until 2020. The building housed the offices of the president, administration and finance, publications, and advancement. In 2020, the administrative building was sold to the government of Qatar to be used as its embassy.^[12]

Carnegie Science and Caltech formalized a partnership in Pasadena; they relocated the departments of Plant Biology, Global Ecology, and Embryology there. As part of the relocation, Carnegie also plans to construct a new research facility on property purchased from the Institute and near the Caltech campus.^[13] The Carnegie Institution partnered with several other organizations in constructing the Giant Magellan Telescope.

• Daniel Coit Gilman (1902–1904)
• Robert S. Woodward (1904–1920)
• John C. Merriam (1921–1938)
• Vannevar Bush (1939–1955)
• Caryl P. Haskins (1956–1971)
• Philip Abelson (1971–1978)
• James D. Ebert (1978–1987)
• Edward E. David, Jr. (Acting President, 1987–1988)
• Maxine F. Singer (1989–2002)
• Michael E. Gellert (Acting President, January – April 2003)
• Richard Meserve (April 2003 – September 2014)
• Matthew P. Scott (September 1, 2014 – December 31, 2017)
• John Mulchaey and Yixian Zheng (Interim Co-Presidents, January 1, 2018 – June 30, 2018)
• Eric D. Isaacs (July 2, 2018 – present)

• Kurt Adelberger

 

Wikisource has the text of the 1920 Encyclopedia Americana article Carnegie Institution of Washington.

• Official website
• 20th century publications of the Carnegie Institution for Science, from HathiTrust
• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. DC-52-A, "Carnegie Institute of Washington, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Standardizing Magnetic Observatory"
• HAER No. DC-52-B, "Carnegie Institute of Washington, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Brass Foundry"
• HAER No. DC-52-C, "Carnegie Institute of Washington, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Atomic Physics Observatory"