Alice Huang

Dr. Huang is Senior Councilor for External Relations and Faculty Associate in Biology at the California Institute of Technology. She was previously Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School and subsequently Dean for Science at New York University. She currently sits on the Boards of the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences of the Claremont Colleges, Health Effects Institute in Boston, MA, Waksman Foundation for Microbiology, Rockefeller Foundation, and Public Agenda. She consults on science policy for government agencies in Singapore, Taiwan, and China as well as for the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the National Aeronautics & Space Agency, and the State of California.

Dr. Huang is a distinguished virologist. The American Society for Microbiology gave her the Eli Lilly Award in Immunology and Microbiology (1977) for her identification of defective interfering viral particles and discoveries on vesicular stomatitis virus, a prototype RNA enveloped virus. The Society also awarded her the Alice C. Evans Award (2001) for promoting women in the sciences. She is a past President of that society. She has honorary doctorates of science from Wheaton College, Mt. Holyoke College, and the Medical College of Pennsylvania. Her past Board service includes the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Keystone Center, University of Massachusetts, Johns Hopkins University, and Shady Hill School. She is a fellow of Academia Sinica in Taiwan (1991), American Women in Science (1998), the Academy of Microbiology, and the AAAS (1999).

She was Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School in 1971. During that time she also served as coordinator of the Virology Unit at the Channing Laboratories of Infectious Diseases at Boston City Hospital and Director of the training program funded by the National Cancer Institute on “Virus-Host Interactions in Cancer.” She became full Professor in 1979, as well as the Director of Laboratories of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital in Boston.

Born in China, Dr. Huang emigrated to the U.S. in 1949. She grew up attending an Episcopal girls’ school on the East Coast and Wellesley College. She received BA, MA, and Ph.D. degrees (microbiology, 1966) from Johns Hopkins University.

As an administrator, Dr. Huang is particularly interested in interdisciplinary research, organization of educational institutions, and in policy issues related to science and technology. Since coming to Caltech (1997), where her husband David Baltimore is the President, she has joined the Pacific Council on International Policy and supports many community organizations.

Dr. Huang resides in Pasadena, California, and has one daughter.