PUBLICDOMAINPICTURES, GEORGE HODANUpdate (March 13): STAT News reports that some current and former Columbia students and postdocs have signed a petition urging the university to be more transparent about Jessell's infractions, and to put in place stronger protections for graduate students and postdocs.
Columbia University removed neuroscientist Thomas Jessell from his posts yesterday (March 7), The New York Times reports. The university says in a statement that “[t]hese decisions follow an investigation that revealed serious violations of University policies and values governing the behavior of faculty members in an academic environment,” but did not specify the nature of the violations. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), which had employed Jessell as an investigator since 1985, has also terminated him, according to Science.
Jessell is known for his work on how neurons control movement, according to the Times. He co-directed Columbia’s Kavli Institute and its Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Initiative (MBBI) and was a past winner of the Kavli Prize for Neuroscience. Science notes that one of ...
