Fresh on the heels of an Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) integrity overhaul, its leader, Eric Lander resigned in early February. This doesn’t look particularly good for the OSTP, an office trying to quell fraud and increase scientific accountability in society. For instance, the White House OSTP stated: “Violations of scientific integrity should be considered on par with violations of government ethics, with comparable consequences.”
Is the way a leader treats his subordinates a question of government ethics? Perhaps not, but the behavior certainly raises some ethical questions. Lander, a renowned mathematician and geneticist, resigned over an audio recording and subsequent official investigation into accusations that he bullied and talked in a demeaning manner to his staffers.
#MeToo in the sciences
The scientific community has not been immune to the squall of sexual harassment cases that hit the nation’s consciousness years ago. In fact, in a blog featured here in The Big Idea, this author wrote about the hierarchical relationships between PIs and grad students, as well as some of the overall beliefs that keep women subjugated in the world of research.
Science magazine reports that the disrespectful and intimidation techniques Lander used were mainly against women. The article notes that Lander apparently led some women to leave OSTP as a direct result of his behavior.
One and out?
In a tweet after being sworn into office, Biden promised to fire anyone who dealt in a disrespectful way with others: “On the spot. No ifs, ands or buts.” But after mounting pressure, Lander was allowed to resign. He sent an apologetic email to his staff that Politico published. In it, Lander said he is “deeply sorry” and that: “It’s my responsibility to set a respectful tone for our community. It’s clear that I have not lived up to this responsibility.”
Or is it “three strikes and you’re out?”
Not the first time disturbing details about Lander trickled forth from OSTP, Biden’s first ever Cabinet member to represent the sciences had once been reprimanded for praising James Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA, despite Watson’s well-known misogyny. Lander was also accused of downplaying the contributions of two female scientists, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, in an article for Cell magazine about the Nobel Prize. Add to that a controversial funding meeting he took with Jeffrey Epstein, who was later proven to be a sexual predator. His career wasn’t plagued with negative events per se, but the events are being looked at through a new lens now.
The Replacements
Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, has been appointed by President Joe Biden to perform the duties of director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and as Deputy Assistant to the President, reported Lee Sandburg on the Institute for Advanced Study’s website.
Is it odd that a social scientist will head up the OSTP, at least until a candidate is nominated and sworn in? Not really. Lander was a genome specialist and Nelson is a social scientist with many books to her credit. Interestingly, Nelson’s expertise is at the intersection of race and genomic study. A few of her books include: The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome and Genetics and the Unsettled Past: The Collision of DNA, Race, and History.
President Biden’s agenda includes the “Cancer Moonshot” program, as well as the creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a high-risk, high-reward biomedical innovations agency. The study of the human genome plays largely in both these areas.
Additionally, until a new Cabinet member can be confirmed, Francis Collins, who led the US National Institutes of Health before his retirement, will temporarily become Biden’s science adviser and co-chair the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
Nature magazine reportedly asked why the duties were being split between two scientists and they were not answered.
The Big Idea
Whatever really went on behind closed doors, whether Lander had a Jekyll and Hyde personality, hyper-intelligence does not preclude one from being socially inappropriate nor does it excuse such behavior. Hopefully the newly appointed Alondra Nelson and Collins will move forward with Biden’s charge from early in his presidency: to “follow the science.” – a quote from Biden circa the early 2020 campaign days.
