The Baltimore Case: A Trial of Politics, Science, and Character

New York: W. W. Norton & Company, c1998. First Edition. First Printing. Hardcover. Very good/very good. 24 cm, 509, [1] pages. Illus., occasional footnotes. glossary, endnotes, essay on sources, index. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Daniel J. Kevles (born 2 March 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American historian of science. He is J. O. and Juliette Koepfli Professor of the Humanities, Emeritus at the California Institute of Technology, where he taught from 1964 to 2001 and served as faculty chair. Since 2001, he is the Stanley Woodward Professor of History, Emeritus and adjunct professor of law at Yale University. His research interests have been primarily on the history of science in America, the interactions between science and society, and environmentalism. His books include The Physicists (1978), a history of the American physics community, In the Name of Eugenics (1985), currently the standard text on the history of eugenics in the United States, and The Baltimore Case (1998), a study of accusations of scientific fraud. Although sharply criticized by Lang and some others as well, the Baltimore Case was generally praised for meticulous scholarship and detailed reporting. In 2001 Kevles was awarded the Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society. He became embroiled in an investigation that would force his resignation as president of the world-renowned Rockefeller University, and would change Federal oversight of laboratory research in the United States. David Baltimore won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1975. Known as a wunderkind in the field of immunology, he rose quickly through the ranks of the scientific community to become the president of the distinguished Rockefeller University. Less than a year and a half later, Baltimore resigned from his presidency, citing the personal toll of fighting a long battle over an allegedly fraudulent paper he had collaborated on in 1986 while at MIT. From the beginning, the Baltimore case provided a moveable feast for those eager to hold science more accountable to the public that subsidizes its research. Did Baltimore stonewall a legitimate government inquiry? Or was he the victim of witch hunters? The Baltimore Case tells the complete story of this complex affair, reminding us how important the issues of government oversight and scientific integrity have become in a culture in which increasingly complicated technology widens the divide between scientists and society.David Baltimore (born March 7, 1938) is an American biologist, university administrator, and 1975 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He served as president of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) from 1997 to 2006, and is currently the President Emeritus and Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology at Caltech. He also served as president of Rockefeller University from 1990 to 1991, and was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2007. Baltimore has profoundly influenced international science, including key contributions to immunology, virology, cancer research, biotechnology, and recombinant DNA research, through his accomplishments as a researcher, administrator, educator, and public advocate for science and engineering. He has trained many doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows, several of whom have gone on to notable and distinguished research careers.