Renowned American scientist Dr. Mark Thessier-Levine has announced his resignation as the president of Stanford University, one of the esteemed scientific institutions in the United States. This decision comes in the wake of a scandal that unveiled allegations of manipulation in scientific research published by Thessier-Levine.
The resignation was made public last month after an investigation conducted by the university revealed evidence of manipulation in the scientific research conducted and published by Thessier-Levine.
The announcement of Thessier-Levine’s resignation followed revelations from the investigation that, as a neuroscientist and executive in the field of biotechnology, he fostered an environment that led to “unusually recurrent data manipulation and/or scientific practices that did not meet required standards” across multiple institutional laboratories.
Scientific Misconduct in 5 Papers The New York Times reported that a committee of scientists focused their investigation on 5 scientific papers, with Thessier-Levine as the primary author. The committee found evidence of data manipulation in 4 out of the 5 papers and scientific inaccuracies in the fifth paper, which was considered a groundbreaking study that Thessier-Levine claimed would “upend our current understanding of Alzheimer’s disease.”
It’s noteworthy that the report on the scandal was prepared by a Stanford University student named Theo Baker, who noted that the investigation was a response to a previous report published by the university’s student-run daily newspaper, “Stanford Daily.” The earlier report had scrutinized scientific studies published between 1999 and 2012.
Although the committee’s report concluded that Dr. Thessier-Levine was not aware of the manipulation occurring in his laboratories at the time, it found instances of image copying, pasting, and improper cropping, as well as duplicated and misrepresented results.
All of this happened before he became the president of Stanford University. So why didn’t the scandal come to light earlier? The New York Times wonders in its report before answering that people didn’t expect something of this sort to happen.
The newspaper also reported that the committee found that the first research paper, conducted in 1999 on neural development, contained a flipped and stretched image that was presented as a result of a different experiment. Similar manipulations were found in a 2004 paper, including reused images to depict separate experiments.
Fundamental Mathematical Errors and Data Manipulation The committee also discovered fundamental mathematical and statistical errors, along with image distortions, in a 2009 research paper about Alzheimer’s disease that had been cited more than 800 times, including controls on images and improper reclassification and tabulation.
Four out of the five scientific papers were found to have manipulated data. The New York Times quoted Dr. Thessier-Levine stating that he intends to retract 3 papers and correct the other 2.
The New York Times considers this a larger issue that extends beyond an individual and his career. In the absence of comprehensive oversight, the scientific community often deals slowly with allegations of research fraud.
In a field built on goodwill collaboration, where each contribution relies on the science that preceded it, consequences can accumulate for years.
