David Baltimore

David Baltimore

David Baltimore (March 7, 1938 – September 6, 2025) was an American biologist, university administrator, and 1975 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He was a professor of biology at the California Institute of Technology, where he served as president from 1997 to 2006. He founded the Whitehead Institute and directed it from 1982 to 1990. He contributed widely to the understanding of cancer, AIDS and the molecular basis of the human body’s immune response and profoundly influenced national science policy on such issues as the AIDS epidemic and research in genetic engineering. In 1975 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research into viral replication that provided the key to understanding the life cycle of retroviruses. His later research focused on control of inflammatory and immune responses as well as on the use of gene therapy methods to treat HIV and cancer in a program called “Engineering Immunity.” He became Director of the Joint Center for Translational Medicine, an activity that joined Caltech and UCLA in a program to translate basic science discoveries into clinical realities.

He played an important role in the development of American biotechnology since his involvement in the 1970s in the formation of Collaborative Genetics. He helped found other companies, including Calimmune and Immune Design, and served on the Board of Directors at several companies and non-profit institutions including the Broad Foundation and the Broad Institute, and Amgen and Regulus Therapeutics. He was also a member of numerous Scientific Advisory Boards, including the Broad Institute, Ragon Institute, Regulus and Immune Design. He was a Scientific Partner to the venture capital firm The Column Group, and was a Director of the Swiss investment company BB Biotech. He was past-President and Chair of the American Association of the Advancement of Science and was most named Riken Honorary Fellow. He was the 1999 recipient of the National Medal of Science and published more than 650 peer-reviewed articles.