Stanford University President Resigns Due to Academic Misconduct: Three Papers Withdrawn and Two Needs Correction | Neurology | Stanford University
On July 19th, the President of Stanford University, Tessie Lavigne, announced that he plans to resign from his position as President due to a review conducted by the Stanford University Board of Directors revealing flaws in his research as a neuroscientist. Lavigne wrote in a letter to the university that he will resign from his position as President of Stanford University on August 31 this year, but will continue to teach as a biology professor, continuing his research in brain development and neurodegeneration.
According to Reuters on July 19th, Lavigne stated that the review revealed areas where he should have "done better", so he accepted the review result of withdrawing three papers and correcting the other two papers. The reason why he resigned is because he expects the discussion about his job to continue indefinitely, which may even trigger a debate in society about his ability to lead Stanford into the new academic year.
Last December, the Stanford University Board of Directors began a review of Lavigne's past work. Because there have been allegations of data fraud in his co authored papers on the crowdsourcing website PubPeer, scientists can raise their doubts about academic research on the website.
The review results released on July 19th indicate that the most serious accusation against Tessie Lavigne of involvement in scientific fraud is untrue. These accusations are related to Lavigne's research on Alzheimer's disease during his tenure as Executive Vice President of Drug Development at Genentech. After reviewing 12 research papers authored by Tasier Lavigne over the past 20 years, investigators found that Lavigne failed to decisively and directly correct errors in scientific records when faced with doubts about his research, but was not involved in "scientific fraud".
After Tessie Lavigne resigns, Professor Salle of the Department of Classical Studies at Stanford University will serve as interim president starting from September 1st.