Interview with David Baltimore - Caltech Oral Histories

Baltimore-75
BALTIMORE: Yes, and Kip’s statement to them was, “Don’t hold back anything. I don’t want
David to come here and say that we didn’t tell him whatever.”
LIPPINCOTT: Whatever problems there were.
BALTIMORE: Whatever problems, responsibilities, perceptions were around, he wanted them
laid out. So they were, as far as I know, very honest. And when I came, it was true, there were
no surprises that I could lay on the head of anybody else. [Laughter] You know, when you
aggregate it all, of course there are surprises, but—
LIPPINCOTT: Steve [Steven E.] Koonin was provost at that time
BALTIMORE: Steve was provost, and I met with him. I even met with Tom [Everhart], I think, if
I remember correctly.
LIPPINCOTT: And you kept Koonin as your provost.
BALTIMORE: I did.
LIPPINCOTT: I guess he was pretty useful to you.
BALTIMORE: Well, it was a terrific opportunity to have somebody with deep knowledge of
Caltech working closely with me; because I knew nothing about Caltech other than what I’d
been told. I had not ever spent time on the campus beyond giving a couple of lectures and
coming out here for Norman Davidson’s eightieth birthday, so I’d been here three or four times.
LIPPINCOTT: Yes, and people important to you, like Dulbecco and Temin were Caltech people.
BALTIMORE: Right. I knew all of the background of Caltech and the mystique of Caltech. In
fact, I can tell and do tell even to this day, about the role of Caltech in modern biology, which is
not appreciated on the campus, even. How deep it was. Because Caltech was generally
viewed—still is viewed, on the outside—as a physics school, as an engineering school, but not as