When the company of the intellectually gifted and accomplished is what you’re seeking, you’ll be glad to find yourself in the San Gabriel Valley! If you know whom to look for, you might even meet a Nobel laureate at your local Trader Joe’s!

The Valley is home to many Nobel Prize winners — the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) alone has five Nobel laureates currently in residence: Rudolph Marcus (Chemistry), David Baltimore (Physiology or Medicine), Ahmed Zewail (Chemistry), Robert Grubbs (Chemistry), and David Politzer (Physics). NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory looks to these distinguished scientists and their colleagues at Caltech and elsewhere, to develop, manage and interpret findings from America’s incredible explorations in outer space.

At the Huntington Library you can find James Folsom’s curious and intriguing Plant Trivia TimeLine, which gives world history from the viewpoint of a botanist. The TimeLine references the findings of five Nobel laureates in biology and botany; many of their writings and drawings also can be found in the Huntington’s collections.

Lectures by current and potential Nobel Prize winners — many of them free — are given frequently throughout the San Gabriel Valley. For example, in April of 2007, Stephen Hawking (a likely laureate) spoke at Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium. JPL’s Theodore von Kármán Lecture Series is held each month — Thursday lectures are held at JPL's von Kármán Auditorium; Friday lectures are held at Pasadena Community College's Vosloh Forum (www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures.cfm). Also check the calendars for the eight Claremont Colleges, which also have a number of Nobel laureates in residence (www.claremont.edu); California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (www.csupomona.edu); Azusa Pacific University (www.apu.edu); California State University, Los Angeles, (www.calstatela.edu); and the Los Angeles County Arboretum, Arcadia (www.arboretum.org).