After serving as President of the California Institute of Technology for nine years, in 2006 Professor David Baltimore was appointed President Emeritus and the Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology. Previously, he was an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Founding Director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT, and the President of Rockefeller University.

Awarded the Nobel Prize at the age of 37 for research in virology, Professor Baltimore has profoundly influenced national science policy on such issues as recombinant DNA research and the AIDS epidemic.

His career has been distinguished by his dual contribution to biological research and to national science policy. Professor Baltimore has served as Head of the National Institutes of Health AIDS Vaccine Research Committee and was Co-Chair of the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine's Committee on a National Strategy for AIDS. He helped pioneer the molecular study of animal viruses, and his research in this field had profound implications for understanding cancer and, later, AIDS.

He has received numerous awards including the National Medal of Science.