Today I had time to read the full report on faked data in the former Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s work, his failures to correct and retract misleading or incorrect articles, and his mismanagement of labs whose members manipulated the data. Ultimately, I was struck by the grubbiness of Tessie-Lavigne’s conduct, and how it smacks of the same lack of ethical judgment repeatedly displayed by Clarence Thomas. Report here: https://washingtonpost.com/documents/454b8927-febc-4bcc-990b-7b68d3f7ed9a.pdf 1/
I wasn’t familiar with Tessier-Lavigne and his work before news of his resignation as Stanford President broke. After reading the report that led to his resignation, I went back over his career. He was a classic golden boy, an academic standout from a young age, fawned over in his profession. See especially this 2004 profile in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/nm0104-10 2/
@heidilifeldman So revealing that he took the time to brag about his 10 year old kid's calculus skills in that hagiographic piece. Not one of Apoorva Mandavilli's (now at the NYTimes) best either.
@twitskeptic @heidilifeldman oh wow. I have liked her coverage of various topics. This was a whiff for sure.