Annual Dinner 2025:
Medicines, Molecular Machines, and the Nobel Prize

We invite all alumni from the college and all alumni from the 12 graduate schools to join us after hours for socializing, a cocktail hour, dinner, and discussion.

Our featured speaker is David Baker, AB ’84, UC Berkeley, PhD ’89, recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for computational protein design. The Baker Lab develops AI/ML protein design software and uses it to create molecules that solve challenges in medicine, technology, and sustainability. More than 20 life science startups have spun out of the Baker Lab at UW to create real world products that benefit all of humanity.

“I like doing things that seem like magic”

Our Annual Dinner provides a portion of the financial support
for our community service programs, CAP, and SCSF,
which help build the next generation of our community leaders.

David Baker, AB ’84, UC Berkeley, PhD ’89

Annual Dinner 2025: Medicines, Molecular Machines, and the Nobel Prize

Featured Speaker:

• David Baker, AB ’84, UC Berkeley, PhD ’89

• Recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Thursday, May 22, 2025

5:45pm - 10:00pm PT

5:45pm - 6:40pm PT - Arrival, Networking, and Socializing

6:40pm - 6:45pm PT - Call for Dinner seating

6:45pm - 7:15pm PT - Dinner and Table Socializing

7:15pm - 7:30pm PT - HCS Annual Meeting

7:30pm - 8:30pm PT - Discussion with David Baker followed by Q&A

8:30pm - 10:00pm PT - Networking and Socializing

10:00pm PT - Closing

Private Club in Downtown Seattle

The exact address will be in your email receipt

Dress Code: Business

Become a member HERE

If you are having trouble with your Harvard Key, please contact the Harvard IT Help Desk.

Registration is limited to 120 alumni and guests

Registration deadline Sunday, May 18, 2025, 11:59pm PT

No refunds after Sunday, May 18, 2025, 11:59pm PT

• Sponsor 1 Current Harvard College Student for 1 summer in

SCSF, Summer Community Service Fellowship

$8,000 includes up to 4 tickets and VIP Table

• VIP Table

$1,000 includes up to 2 tickets and VIP Table

• Crimson and Benefactor Members

$0 includes up to 2 tickets

• Club Member $250 per person

• Non-Member $325 per person

• Recent Grad Member ('21 - '24) $200 per person

• Most Recent Grad Member ('25) $175 per person

• Current Student Member $150 per person

• Donate a Current Student Ticket $150 per person

An important note to our Members

The ticket price covers our costs of putting on our Annual Dinner.

Any profits generated from this event will be allocated to our Community Service Programs:

• Crimson Achievement Program (CAP)

• Summer Community Service Fellowship (SCSF)

• Donate Here

Registration is limited to 120 alumni and guests

Registration deadline Sunday, May 18, 2025, 11:59pm PT

No refunds after Sunday, May 18, 2025, 11:59pm PT

Members:

Membership must expire AFTER June 30, 2025 to be eligible for up to four tickets at the member price.

Limit of two complimentary tickets for Crimson and Benefactor members.

Cost over $250 is considered a donation.

The Harvard Club of Seattle is a 501(c)(3) organization, and donations may be tax deductible.

Become a member HERE

• Donate Here

Sponsors:

If you or your organization would like to help underwrite this event, please contact Kelly Charlton, President of the Harvard Club.

The Harvard Club of Seattle is a 501(c)(3) organization, and donations may be tax deductible.

Ticket donations:

If you would like to purchase a ticket that will be donated to a worthy student, please click here.

Menu:

All inclusive appetizers, salad, plated dinner, dessert, beverages

If you have dietary restrictions, please inform us in the comment box, or by email, no later than Sunday, May 18, 2025 at 11:59pm

Questions?

Please contact Kelly Charlton, President, Harvard Club of Seattle.

If you are having trouble with your Harvard Key, please contact the Harvard IT Help Desk.

About David Baker, AB ’84, UC Berkeley, PhD ‘89

• Director, Institute for Protein Design at UW

• Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

• Henrietta and Aubrey Davis Endowed Professor of Biochemistry, UW School of Medicine

• UW Adjunct Professor

o Genome Sciences

o Bioengineering

o Chemical Engineering

o Computer Science

o Physics

David Baker grew up in Seattle and attended Seattle Public Schools. At Garfield High School in the Seattle Central District David was on the chess team.

Baker wasn’t much into science as a kid, even though his parents were both UW science professors. His father, Marshall, is a physicist who specializes in string models and quarks, and his mother, Marcia, is an expert in geophysics and atmospheric sciences. When he started at Harvard as an undergraduate, Baker studied philosophy and social science. However, during his senior year in a course on evolutionary biology he came across the first edition of the now classic textbook Molecular Biology of the Cell. This led to him changing his direction in life. He began to explore cell biology and eventually he became fascinated by protein structures.

Baker told an interviewer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, where he is an investigator, that his initial interest in protein folding began when he was an undergraduate biology concentrator at Harvard: “We had to write a term paper on something to do with biochemistry, and I asked the professors if I could look at protein folding,” he said. “They discouraged me, saying ‘no one really knows how it works.’” Years later, as researcher with his own lab, he returned to the question and is discovering the answers.

“I like doing things that seem like magic”

He has published more than 650 scientific papers, been awarded over 100 patents, and co-founded 21 biotechnology companies. More than 100 of his trainees have gone on to independent faculty positions.

He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for computational protein design.” He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and was included on TIME’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in health.

Nobel Prize lecture: David Baker, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024

Nobel Prize – February 14, 2025

about 39 minutes

only 20 minutes at 2x playback speed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbDvQgsOI-E

David Baker, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024: Official interview

About 23 minutes

Only 12 minutes at 2x playback speed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f-Tlv8qBc4

Redefining Medicine: Nobel Laureate David Baker on AI in Drug Discovery

ARK Invest – November 14, 2024

about 50 minutes