John D. Baldeschwieler
Baldeschwieler has been a part of Caltech since 1973. He is the founder and chairman of the board of Vestar Inc., which merged with NeXagen Inc. to form NeXstar Pharmaceuticals. He was a director of NeXstar until it was acquired by Gilead Pharmaceuticals Inc. Baldeschwieler was also the founder and director of Combion Inc. until it was acquired by Incyte Genomics, Inc.
He served as deputy director of the Office of Science and Technology in the White House, and previously taught at Harvard University and Stanford University.
Baldeschwieler is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He received the National Medal of Science in 2000.
Currently, he serves as managing member of the Athenaeum Fund and as a director of the Huntington Medical Research Institutes and for several privately held companies. He is a member of the Board of the Chemical Heritage Foundation and a member of the Pasadena Angels. Previously he was chairman of the board of Pasadena Entretech.
He earned a B. Chem. E. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley.