Stanford Investigates Its President Over Allegations of Past Research Misconduct

Marc Tessier-Lavigne is president of Stanford University. He's also "the subject of a university investigation," reports SFGate, "following a report from the school's newspaper, the Stanford Daily, that he committed scientific research misconduct" in papers he co-authored years ago which may contain altered images. More from the Washington Post:The university launched the inquiry after the Stanford Daily, a campus newspaper, reported that a well-known research journal was looking into concerns raised about a 2008 paper co-authored by Marc Tessier-Lavigne. The Daily reported that in addition to the paper in the European Molecular Biology Organization Journal, there were questions about other published research. Some of those complaints were first made many years ago, and Tessier-Lavigne had tried to correct papers at one journal in 2015, according to its editor.... Tessier-Lavigne said in a statement that he supports the inquiry. "Scientific integrity is of the utmost importance both to the university and to me personally," Tessier-Lavigne said. "I support this process and will fully cooperate with it, and I appreciate the oversight by the Board of Trustees...." Elisabeth Bik, who had been a staff scientist at Stanford doing postdoctoral microbiology research until 2016 and is now a well-known research integrity consultant who specializes in photographic images, said she heard about the questions about some papers of which Tessier-Lavigne is one of the authors a few years after they were first raised, and identified additional possible problems. Most appeared to be minor concerns, and they could have been honest mistakes, she said. This week, Bik said, she spotted a more troubling instance in a paper from 1999 with multiple authors where it appeared photos had been altered, which she said was suggestive of copying and pasting. The Los Angeles Times describes Tessier-Lavigne as "a neuroscientist and biotech entrepreneur widely known for his Alzheimer's research" who "has authored or co-authored about 300 scientific papers."

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