CMA Presents "Caltech/JPL: Unique in Its Triumphs and Challenges"

The California Institute of Technology recently ranked first among national universities in U.S. News & World Report's annual issue devoted to "America's Best Colleges." This ranking reflects the ideal that Nobel Laureate and president of Caltech Dr. David Baltimore expressed during his 1998 Inaugural Speech when he stated, "My deepest goal as president is to maintain the essence of Caltech while helping it adapt to a changing world." You won't want to miss this opportunity to hear Dr. Baltimore share his perspective on the unique triumphs and challenges Caltech — and by extension, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory — faces in attempting to reach this goal.

Dr. David Baltimore was awarded the 1975 Nobel Prize for his work in virology. Prior to that, he was Ivan R. Cottrell Professor of Molecular Biology and Immunology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founding director of MIT's Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He served in this role from 1982 to 1990, when he became president of Rockefeller University. During the 1970s, he played a pivotal role with several other eminent biologists in creating a consensus on national science policy regarding recombinant DNA research. They established research standards that are followed by the genetics community to this day. More recently, Dr. Baltimore has been a major figure in Washington as chairman of the National Institutes of Health AIDS Vaccine Research Committee. He assumed the presidency of Caltech in October 1997.