1998

DAVID BALTIMORE

President Emeritus and Professor of Biology, Caltech

BROAD CENTER FOR THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

When I became president of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1997, I was the first biologist to lead the institution. Biology was thriving on campus when I arrived, thanks to the work of past leaders and Caltech’s board. But part of my job was to strengthen the biological sciences program for the future. To do that, we needed to give that program a new home.

The William G. Kerckhoff Laboratories of the Biological Sciences had stood since 1928. It was a beautiful building, almost like a monastery, and looking at it you would never think scientific research occurred there. But beyond its looks, Kerckhoff simply wasn’t designed for contemporary biology. We needed a space that would foster more interaction between labs and create more collaboration across disciplines. Biology was no longer an idiosyncratic way of investigating the world. It now required the strengths and modes of thinking previously only found in physics, chemistry, engineering, and mathematics. Strengthening relationships between these subjects and biology would be crucial to biology becoming the science of the twenty-first century.

A number of young biologists have come in and built their careers in this new building, working with physicists and engineers and structural chemists. Older researchers have even changed the research they do in order to move into it. While the center is just a building, it is also a symbol of all that’s possible in biology today.

Eli and Edye Broad were among the Caltech supporters who immediately understood the value of a new home for biology. Thanks to their foundation, not only did Caltech build such a home, but it also brought contemporary architecture to the campus for the first time. Architecture here had suffered since World War II, though buildings made before then were often interesting. The Broad Center for the Biological Sciences was the first of several new, more striking buildings.

A number of young biologists have come in and built their careers in this new building, working with physicists and engineers and structural chemists. Older researchers have even changed the research they do in order to move into it. While the center is just a building, it is also a symbol of all that’s possible in biology today.