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Many of you will have heard by now the sad news that David Baltimore passed away on Saturday morning. 

The New York Times describes David’s roles as one of the greatest scientists and scientific leaders of his generation. His legendary contributions to virology and cancer include his Nobel Prize-winning discovery of reverse transcriptase — the enzyme that copies retroviruses from RNA to DNA and which became a central target in the fight against AIDS. Equally extraordinary was his role as a steward of the scientific community, including serving as president of both The Rockefeller University and Caltech.

I am writing to be sure you also know about David’s central role in the history of the Ó³»­´«Ã½: Without David Baltimore, there would be no Ó³»­´«Ã½. In addition, David was a cherished mentor and inspiration to many Ó³»­´«Ã½ies, including myself.

When David founded the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in 1982, he invented a powerful new concept — an independent biomedical research institute that was closely affiliated with a university; a scientific community with a distinctive vision; an institution with scientific taste and the autonomy to act on it. 

David’s idea was initially met with much suspicion, but he persevered and created a precedent for other experiments to follow — notably, the Ó³»­´«Ã½. When the Ó³»­´«Ã½ emerged from the Whitehead in 2004, it was based on the principles and governing structure that David created.

Among David’s innovations was the Whitehead Fellows program, now widely copied. Its goal was to allow talented young scientists, at earlier stages than typical for faculty positions, to lead their own research groups for five years. David bet on empowering young people.

I was one of those beneficiaries. David hired me as the fourth Whitehead Fellow, in 1985, when I was a wayward mathematician who had not yet published a single paper in biology. No traditional biomedical institution would have given me a job. But, David was confident in his judgments. 

David had set a firm rule: Whitehead Fellows would never be hired as Whitehead Faculty, to ensure the fellows program would not become an ‘audition’ for faculty hiring. He then had the confidence in his judgment to violate his rule: He hired three of the first four fellows as Whitehead and MIT faculty — David Page, who would later direct the Whitehead; Peter Kim, who would later lead research at Merck; and me. I learned from David the importance of having rules — and of being willing to rethink them.

David had a singular ability to inspire people. In the mid-1980s, when many people were scared to work on AIDS, David gathered the Whitehead faculty and fellows to tell us that the institute had a responsibility to work on HIV. There was no debate; we trusted David’s judgment. 

Most consequential for Ó³»­´«Ã½ies was something David did when he was president of Caltech. 

Whereas some university leaders focus only on their own institution, David saw his role as shepherding the scientific enterprise as a whole. In the early 2000s, when David learned that some of us were hoping to create a new kind of research institute in Boston, he connected us with two generous donors to Caltech, Eli and Edythe Ó³»­´«Ã½. As a trusted advisor to Eli and Edye, David strongly endorsed the idea to them. He then worked closely with all of us to make it a reality. When the Ó³»­´«Ã½ was founded, David served as Chair of Ó³»­´«Ã½â€™s Board of Scientific Counselors and as a member of Ó³»­´«Ã½â€™s Board of Directors, in which role he served through June of this year.

Without David Baltimore, there would be no Ó³»­´«Ã½.

Without David Baltimore, the entire scientific enterprise — generations of amazing scientists, many vibrant new institutions, our knowledge of biomedicine — would be much poorer.

May David Baltimore’s memory be a blessing and an inspiration for all of us.