Dr.
David Baltimore is one of the nation's most distinguished biologists and
winner of the 1975 Nobel Prize for his work in virology. Dr. Baltimore
has served as an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology; the founding director of MIT's Whitehead Institute for Biomedical
Research (1982-1990); and the president of Rockefeller University. Currently
he serves as president of the California Institute of Technology. In addition
to biological research, Dr. Baltimore has shaped national science policy.
His pioneering research in the molecular study of animal viruses has had
profound implications for understanding cancer and, later, AIDS. In the
mid-1970s, along with several other eminent biologists, Dr. Baltimore
played a pivotal role in creating a consensus on national science policy
regarding recombinant DNA research and established standards that are
followed by the genetics community to this day. Dr. Baltimore has served
as head of the National Institutes of Health AIDS Vaccine Research Committee,
and as co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine's
Committee on a National Strategy for AIDS. He is a member of the National
Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Society of London.
