Marc Tessier-Lavigne to resign as Stanford’s president
On Wednesday July 19th, Stanford university announced that Marc Tessier-Lavigne will resign as president effective August 31st, 2023 with Professor Richard Saller taking over as interim president on September 1st.
Stanford | Board of Trustees: Board of Trustees Statement-Release of Report and Announcements
Tessier-Lavigne has been under scrutiny for possible unethical practices in research he conducted in the field of neuroscience. In the press release linked above, Stanford stated the following about Tessier-Lavigne’s research:
The Board today released the full report from Mr. Filip and the Scientific Panel, which is available to the public here. We recommend the community read the report for a complete explanation of the review and its conclusions.
In this report, the Scientific Panel noted President Tessier-Lavigne’s long and distinguished career as a scientist, in which he has co-authored more than 200 scientific papers and has made seminal contributions to the field of neuroscience. While the Special Committee placed no limits on the Scientific Panel’s ability to consider issues it deemed to be within its purview, the Scientific Panel focused on issues related to twelve scientific papers about which concerns had been raised. Dr. Tessier-Lavigne was a principal author on five of those papers.
On the basis of the extensive record collected about the twelve papers, the Scientific Panel did not find evidence to conclude that Dr. Tessier-Lavigne personally engaged in research misconduct, as defined by the federal Office of Research Integrity. Further, the Scientific Panel did not find evidence to conclude that Dr. Tessier-Lavigne had actual knowledge of misconduct by others prior to publication of the papers.
With respect to the five papers on which Dr. Tessier-Lavigne was a principal author, the Scientific Panel did find evidence that some members of labs overseen by Dr. Tessier-Lavigne either engaged in inappropriate manipulation of research data or engaged in deficient scientific practices, resulting in significant flaws in those papers. In several instances, when these issues emerged, the Scientific Panel determined that Dr. Tessier-Lavigne took insufficient steps to correct mistakes in the scientific record.
President Tessier-Lavigne has accepted the report and is making important corrections and retractions to the scientific record in light of the information now available to him.
Stanford and Tessier-Lavigne agreed that he could not go on serving as university president amid such controversy. One of the most important things major universities like Stanford do is conduct research. If one is going to lead a university of Stanford’s caliber, one cannot be under any such scrutiny for being unethical or dishonest in how they conduct research.
At best, Tessier-Lavigne was sloppy and at worst, he was flat out deceitful. The conclusions of the investigation seem to lie somewhere in the middle. Landing anywhere on that spectrum is grounds for resignation, so it’s good for Stanford that this is happening and that it is happening in a manner that is rather smooth.
Under Tessier-Lavigne’s leadership, Stanford has seen growing resentment among some members of its student body with regard to campus culture. The “Stanford Hates Fun” banner that was present at last season’s home football game against Arizona State was a manifestation of this resentment. Tessier-Lavigne by and large has not been viewed as one who is particularly sensitive to fostering a positive atmosphere with regard to athletics and so in that vein, it might be good for the university to have someone else step in and take things in a more positive direction.
Ironically, the first professional athlete to ever speak at a Stanford commencement was John McEnroe at this year’s commencement. Perhaps Tessier-Lavigne took some of those criticisms to heart by inviting McEnroe to speak since McEnroe embodies a lot of what the “Stanford Hates Fun” movement wants to see more of on campus.
Looking ahead, it’ll be interesting to see how Tessier-Lavigne’s departure affects Stanford as a whole and also how it affects the overall culture on campus of which athletics is so integral. One thing that is true is that success starts at the very top and Stanford cannot expect to reach its maximum potential in any field without having people of honesty and integrity at the helm.
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