Eric Lander
Eric Lander | |
---|---|
11th Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy | |
In office June 2, 2021 – February 18, 2022 | |
President | Joe Biden |
Preceded by | Kei Koizumi (acting) |
Succeeded by | Alondra Nelson (acting) |
Science Advisor to the President | |
In office January 25, 2021 – February 18, 2022 | |
President | Joe Biden |
Preceded by | Kei Koizumi (acting) |
Succeeded by | Francis Collins (acting) |
Personal details | |
Born | New York City, U.S. | February 3, 1957
Political party | Gairdner Award (2002) Harvey Prize (2012) Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2013) William Allan Award (2018) |
Website | www |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | Broad Institute Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Thesis | Topics in Algebraic Coding Theory (1980) |
Doctoral advisor | Peter Cameron |
Doctoral students | Julie Segre[2] Kenro Kusumi[3] Manolis Kellis[4] Erez Lieberman Aiden Mark Daly |
Eric Steven Lander (born February 3, 1957) is an American mathematician and geneticist who is a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical School. Eric Lander is founding director emeritus of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.[5]
Lander served as the 11th director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Science Advisor to the President in Joe Biden's presidential Cabinet.[6][1][7][8] In response to allegations that he had engaged in bullying and abusive conduct, Lander apologized and resigned from the Biden Administration effective February 18, 2022.[9][10]
Early life and education
Lander was born in
After graduating from
Career
During his career, Lander has worked on human
Early mathematical career
As a mathematician, Lander studied combinatorics and applications of representation theory to coding theory. He enjoyed mathematics but did not wish to spend his life in such a "monastic" career.[20] Unsure what to do next, he took a job teaching managerial economics at Harvard Business School. At the suggestion of his brother, developmental biologist Arthur Lander, he started to look at neurobiology, saying at the time, "because there's a lot of information in the brain".[21] To understand mathematical neurobiology, he felt he had to study cellular neurobiology; this, in turn, led to studying microbiology and eventually genetics. "When I finally feel I have learned genetics, I should get back to these other problems. But I'm still trying to get the genetics right", Lander said.
Lander later became acquainted with
Human Genome Project
Two main groups attempted to sequence the human genome. The first was the
In February 2001, both the Human Genome Project and Celera published drafts of the human genome in the scientific journals Nature[27] and Science,[28] respectively. In the Human Genome Project's Nature publication, the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Center for Genome Research, was listed first, with Lander listed as the first named author.[27][29]
Leveraging Celera's sequencing and analysis techniques, the Whitehead Institute also made a contribution to the sequencing of the mouse genome,
Lander was the founding editor of the Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics.[35] He remained editor till 2004.
After Human Genome Project
Lander is the founding director of the
During the Obama presidency, Lander cochaired the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.[38]
Toast to James Watson
Lander toasted to James Watson in 2018 for his 90th birthday, which caused controversy in the wake of Watson's widely disparaged comments around intelligence and race.[39][40][41] Lander had included a brief aside in his toast stating that Watson was flawed, but still later apologized for his toast after significant outrage from academics on Twitter.[39] STAT News noted that other scientists had also similarly toasted Watson, but had not elicited similar outrage.[42]
CRISPR-Cas 9 Controversy
Lander received criticism in the past for allegedly diminishing the accomplishments of Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier after publishing "The Heroes of CRISPR" in Cell.[43][44][40] Some argued that his article was misogynistic for having removed women scientists from history.[40] Of particular note, Lander was accused of a conflict of interest, as the Broad Institute had been competing with UC Berkeley for patent rights to commercialize CRISPR.[44] Lander responded by suggesting he had not meant "to diminish anybody" and noted that science is collaborative by nature.[44] Criticism was particularly harsh online by other academics and biologists, due to previous resentment with Landers.[45] During questioning for his role of Science Advisor to the President, Landers admitted that he had made a mistake in understating the accomplishments of Doudna and Charpentier.[40]
Forensic science and criminal justice
In 1989, Lander provided expert testimony in the New York criminal case People v. Castro. He showed that the then-current method of interpreting DNA evidence was liable to give false positive matches, implicating innocent defendants.[46][47][48] Two of the defense attorneys in that case, Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, went on to found the Innocence Project, an organization that uses DNA analysis to exonerate wrongly convicted prisoners. Lander is a member of the Innocence Project's board of directors.[49]
Science Advisor to the President
In January 2021, President-elect Joe Biden nominated Lander as Science Advisor to the President and announced that he would elevate the position to a Cabinet-level post.[6] In January 2021, 500 female scientists published an editorial in Scientific American to consider naming someone else to the position, because he was well known within the scientific community for offending women.[41][50] His nomination had been held up possibly due to requests for clarification about his having attended two gatherings where Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy large-scale donor to science who was also a convicted sex offender, was present.[40][51] He was also questioned about accusations of sexism and his toast to James Watson.[40][52] On April 29, a confirmation hearing was held in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.[53][54] On May 20, the committee voted to report favorably on the nomination, with five Republican senators voting against.[55] On May 28, 2021, before a Memorial Day recess, his nomination was confirmed by voice vote by the full Senate. Lander was sworn in as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy on June 2, 2021. He took his oath using a rare 1492 copy of the Pirkei Avot.[56]
On February 7, 2022, Politico reported on a White House investigation in which fourteen current and former Office of Science and Technology Policy staffers accused Lander on February 4 of having bullied and demeaned his subordinates.[57] Lander admitted to the behavior and issued an apology to staff on February 4, his apology includes, "I am devastated that I caused hurt to past and present colleagues by the way in which I have spoken to them... I believe it is not possible to continue effectively in my role, and the work of this office is far too important to be hindered."[58] He later resigned on February 7.[59][60]
After Resignation
Since 2023, Eric Lander has returned to his tenured professor positions at MIT and Harvard as well as Broad as a Core Institute Member and Founding Director Emeritus.[61][62] While some opinion pieces argued that "Eric Lander is getting uncanceled",[63] The Chronicles of Higher Education noted that some staffers at the Broad expressed alarm at Lander's sudden return without further discussion from their leadership.[62] In 2023, Lander started a non-profit called Science for America focused on "moonshot" ideas such as nuclear fusion or cancer research.[61]
Recognition and service
In 1999, Lander received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[64]
In 2004, Lander was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of our time for his work on the Human Genome Project. He has appeared in numerous PBS documentaries about genetics. He was ranked #2 on the MIT150 list of MIT's innovators and ideas.[65]
In December 2008, Lander and
Lander is a member of the advisory board to the USA Science and Engineering Festival.[67]
In 2013, Lander was awarded the first Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.[68][69] In 2016, Semantic Scholar AI program ranked him #1 on its list of most influential biomedical researchers.[70]
In 2016, he received the Award for Excellence in Molecular Diagnostics from the Association for Molecular Pathology.[71]
In 2017, Lander received an
In 2019, he served on the Life Sciences jury for the
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{{cite web}}
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