| Authorised form of name | Baltimore; David (1938-2025); biologist |
| Dates | 1938-2025 |
| Nationality | American |
| Place of birth | New York, New York, USA |
| Date of birth | 07 March 1938 |
| Place of death | Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA |
| Date of death | 06 September 2025 |
| Occupation | Biologist |
| Research field | Biotechnology |
| Molecular immunology |
| Microbiology |
| Virology |
| Cell biology |
| Biology |
| Activity | Education: Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, USA BA (1956-1960); Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge Massachusetts (1960-1961); Rockefeller University, New York, New York PhD (1961-1964)
Career:
Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1963-1964); Postdoctoral Fellow, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York (1964-1965); Research Associate, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California (1965-1968); Associate Professor of Microbiology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1968-1972); Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1972); American Cancer Society Professor of Microbiology (1973); founded Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (1982); Professor of Biology and President Emeritus, Caltech.
Medals and prizes:
Nobel Prize (Physiology or Medicine) 1975
Awards/Medals:
NAS Award in Molecular Biology 1974
Sir Hans Krebs Medal 1997
National Medal of Science 1999
Lasker Award 2021 |
| Membership category | Foreign Member |
| Date of election | 25/06/1987 |
| Age at election | 49 |
| Relationships | Parents: Gertrude (Lipschitz) and Richard Baltimore.
Spouse: Dr. Alice Huang |
| PublishedWorks | RCN 15559
RCN R83874 |
| OtherInfo | Pioneered the development of DNA recombinant techniques, contributing to the discovery of how tumour viruses interact with the genetic material of cells.
Helped to establish the US government’s guidelines on the Human Genome Project and is an advocate for research into HIV and AIDS.
Contributed to the fields of immunology, virology, cancer research, and biotechnology. At the same time as Satoshi Mizutani and Howard Temin (with whom he shared the Nobel Prize), he independently discovered the reverse transcriptase enzyme — an essential component in the reproduction of retroviruses such as HIV. |
| Source | Mariana Cook 'Faces of Science' 2005;
The Royal Society Fellows Directory, Dr David Baltimore FRS, [URL: https://royalsociety.org/people/david-baltimore-11028/; last accessed: 24/09/2025]
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Remembering David Baltimore’s scientific leadership, John Pope, 19 September 2025, [URL: https://thebulletin.org/2025/09/remembering-david-baltimores-scientific-leadership/; last accessed: 24/09/2025]
The Nobel Prize, David Baltimore, Biographical, [URL: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1975/baltimore/biographical/; last accessed: 24/09/2025]
The New York Times, David Baltimore, Nobel-Winning Molecular Biologist, Dies at 87, Gina Kolata, 7 September 2025, [URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/science/david-baltimore-dead.html; last accessed: 24/09/2025] |
| Code | NA4746 |