After nearly a year of public silence and private speculation over Eric Lander’s next act, his return to the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard is now official. Starting in February, the former White House science adviser will resume his position as a core institute member as well as his tenured faculty positions at MIT and Harvard.
But the founding director will not be back at the helm of the Cambridge, Mass., biomedical research powerhouse, a role he held from 2003 to 2021, when he was appointed to serve as the White House’s first Cabinet-level science adviser to the president. Barely a year into his service, Lander resigned, following complaints that he had bullied staffers and created a toxic work culture inside the Office of Science Technology and Policy.
Todd Golub, who permanently replaced Lander as the Broad’s director when he left for Washington, addressed the allegations of workplace bullying only glancingly in an announcement to the institute’s staff on Friday. Golub wrote that they had “stimulated important and often tough discussions about academic culture here and across the nation.” He added that at the Broad, there are high expectations that everyone foster an inclusive culture of respect, regardless of role, stature, or identity. “Eric also deeply values this culture and is committed to upholding it,” he wrote.
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