Overview

• Caltech confirmed that Baltimore died Sept. 6 at his home in Massachusetts at age 87.
• Multiple outlets report the cause as complications from cancer.
• He shared the 1975 Nobel Prize for showing that retroviruses use reverse transcriptase to copy RNA into DNA.
• He later led Caltech from 1997 to 2006 and founded MIT’s Whitehead Institute, receiving the National Medal of Science in 1999 and a 2021 Lasker Special Achievement Award.
• He navigated a high‑profile late‑1980s misconduct case involving a co‑author’s paper; the co‑author was cleared in 1996, and he continued an influential career in research and mentorship.