David Baltimore, former Caltech president and Nobel winner, dead at 87

Former Caltech president and Nobel laureate David Baltimore died at his home in Massachusetts on Saturday, Sept. 6, Caltech confirmed on Sunday. He was 87.

Details of his death were not immediately available Sunday morning.

Baltimore was the seventh president of the California Institute in Technology in Pasadena, serving in the post for nearly nine years, from 1997-2006.

As a professor of biology, he was known for his work in physiology and DNA research and worked with other researchers in developing an HIV vaccine. He also championed a $1.4 billion fundraising campaign during the later years of his tenure.

Baltimore won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1975 at age 37. In 2021, he was awarded the Lasker~Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science.

His research in gene therapy led to breakthroughs in cancer research, including insights into chronic myelogenous leukemia, a rare type of bone marrow cancer.

“David Baltimore will go down in history as not only a great scientist, but also as one of the great presidents of Caltech,” said Eli Broad after Baltimore announced his retirement. Broad, both a Caltech trustee and a major donor, helped raise money and contributed funds for several buildings on the sprawling campus.

“It is rare to find someone of his intelligence, integrity, and leadership who can relate so well to people both within and outside the world of science,” Broad added in October 2005.

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