Interview with David Baltimore - Caltech Oral Histories

Baltimore-42
DAVID BALTIMORE
SESSION 2
November 19, 2009
LIPPINCOTT: We left off just as you came back to MIT from Salk in January 1968, and you
came back as an associate professor. Then you and Alice Huang married in October
BALTIMORE: Yes.
LIPPINCOTT: Just to get the personal business down—you have one daughter, Teak.
BALTIMORE: Actually, her name is Lauren Rachel Baltimore. But in utero we started calling
her “the kid,” and that became “TK,” and that became “Teak.”
LIPPINCOTT: Oh, “TK,” to come. That’s the editorial term.
BALTIMORE: I know. I see it all the time, actually. When she was growing up, we continued to
call her Teak, and she loved the name. So when she was of an age to make decisions, she said
she wanted to be Teak and spell it TK—Just capital T, capital K—which is what she’s known as.
LIPPINCOTT: Oh really Because I’ve seen it in print as—
BALTIMORE: Like the wood. Yes, when we spell it out so people will know how to say it, it
gets spelled like the wood, but she signs herself “TK.”
LIPPINCOTT: Is she a scientist
BALTIMORE: No. She works for Advance Publications.
LIPPINCOTT: Oh, that’s Si Newhouse, who owns The New Yorker.