Dr. David Baltimore, President Emeritus and Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology, formerly President of California Institute of Technology for nine years, is one of the world’s most influential biologists. Awarded the Nobel Prize at the age of 37 for research in virology, Baltimore has profoundly influenced national science policy on such issues as recombinant DNA research and the AIDS epidemic. Before coming to Caltech, Dr. Baltimore was an institute professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was founding director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT, and served from the institute’s creation in 1982 to 1990, when he became president of Rockefeller University. His career has been distinguished by his dual contribution to biological research and to national science policy. Dr. Baltimore helped pioneer the molecular study of animal viruses, and his research in this field had profound implications for understanding cancer and, later, AIDS. In the mid-1970’s, along with several other eminent biologists, he played a pivotal role in creating a consensus on national science policy regarding recombinant DNA research and also established standards that are followed by the genetics community to this day. Dr. Baltimore has been a major figure in Washington as head of the National Institutes of Health AIDS Vaccine Research Committee from 1996-2002, and also in 1986 as co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine’s committee on a National Strategy for AIDS. He was appointed to the Independent Citizen’s Oversight Committee to the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and is now serving as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 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. He was awarded the 1999 National Medal of Science.