Nobel Laureate David Baltimore, president of the California Institute of Technology, will speak at MIT on Tuesday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium. His topic is "Building a Community on Trust."
In the fourth Ford/MIT Nobel Laureate Lecture, Baltimore will discuss the central importance of trust in science, education, commerce and personal life. "Trust is a moral stance without which a community cannot exist because, as the Enron debacle shows, no network of safeguards can replace moral behavior," he said. In his remarks, he intends to emphasize the role of trust in the collaborative activities that are needed for interdisciplinary science and in the educational community.
Before becoming Caltech president in 1997, Baltimore was an Institute Professor at MIT and founding director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He received the Nobel Prize in 1975 for his work in virology.
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-1970s, along with several other eminent biologists, he played a pivotal role in creating a consensus on national science policy regarding recombinant DNA research.
He headed 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 received the 1999 National Medal of Science in recognition of his research achievements, his excellence in building scientific institutions, and his ability to foster communication between scientists and the general public.
Baltimore's lecture, to be followed by a reception in Kresge lobby, is open to the MIT community. For more information about the lecture series, click here.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on February 13, 2002.
