Marc Tessier-Lavigne

Marc Trevor Tessier-Lavigne (born December 18, 1959) is a Canadian-American neuroscientist who was the eleventh president of Stanford University.

Previously, he was a professor at the University of California, San Francisco and then president of Rockefeller University in New York City. He was formerly executive vice president for research and chief scientific officer at Genentech. As of 2021, he is on the boards of directors of Denali Therapeutics and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, as well as the scientific advisory boards of Denali Therapeutics and Agios Pharmaceuticals.

In 2022, the Stanford board of trustees opened an investigation into allegations that Tessier-Lavigne might have been involved in fabricating results in articles published between 2001 and 2008, when he was working at Genentech. In July 2023, the trustees' report was released, finding that in several papers he co-authored "there was apparent manipulation of research data by others." Tessier-Lavigne then announced that he would be stepping down as president of Stanford, effective August 31, 2023. On April 23, 2024, it was announced that Tessier-Lavigne would take the role of CEO of a new AI biotech drug discovery startup, Xaira Therapeutics.

Early life and education
Tessier-Lavigne was born in Trenton, Ontario, Canada. He grew up in Europe from ages 7 to 17, where his father was serving with NATO as part of the Canadian Armed Forces. He was the first in his family to attend university.

Tessier-Lavigne received a Bachelor of Science with a major in physics from McGill University in 1980, a Bachelor of Arts with a major in philosophy and physiology from New College, Oxford, in 1982, and a Doctor of Philosophy in physiology from University College London in 1987.

Tessier-Lavigne attended New College, Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, where he "first encountered the nervous system and fell in love with it," graduating with first-class honors. His doctoral advisor at University College London was David Attwell. He did postdoctoral research at the MRC Developmental Neurobiology Unit at University College London in 1987 and at the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University with Thomas Jessell from 1987 to 1991.

Early career: UCSF, Stanford and Genentech
Tessier-Lavigne started his career at the University of California, San Francisco, from 1991 to 2001. He was a professor of biological sciences at Stanford University from 2001 to 2003. Genentech hired him in 2003 as its senior vice president of Research Drug Discovery. He cited the firm's "potential to create breakthrough therapies for unmet medical needs" as his reason for leaving academia. His research on the development of the brain has uncovered details of how Alzheimer's disease is triggered.

Rockefeller University
In 2011 Tessier-Lavigne joined Rockefeller University as its 10th president, succeeding Paul Nurse, who returned to Britain to take over as president of the Royal Society. Rockefeller University called Tessier-Lavigne, who supervised a team of 1,400 researchers, the "Board's unanimous first choice for the position". He would be the first high-ranking science employee to leave Genentech following its acquisition by Roche in March 2009. The departure of Tessier-Lavigne from Genentech raised concerns that the company — described by The New York Times as being "among the most innovative and successful biotechnology companies in the world" — would see a negative effect on its scientific culture. Tessier-Lavigne stated that his choice to leave Genentech was unrelated to the Roche merger and that "this is probably the only job that could have lured me away from Genentech." Russell L. Carson, chairman of the board of trustees at Rockefeller University, said that he had "literally called him cold" to offer him the position and that Tessier-Lavigne had the strong scientific background needed to oversee the 70 independent laboratories that operate within the university and whose heads report directly to the president. Richard Scheller, Tessier-Lavigne's superior, called the move "part of the tradition of exchange between academia and Genentech." While it was too early to discuss specific goals, Tessier-Lavigne said that he hoped to work on transforming basic science into treatments for disease.

Tessier-Lavigne is also a member of the Xconomists, an ad hoc team of editorial advisors for the tech news and media company, Xconomy.

Stanford University and research controversy
On February 4, 2016, Stanford University announced that Tessier-Lavigne would become Stanford's 11th president, succeeding John L. Hennessy. As president he presided over the opening of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, the first new school at Stanford since 1948. In November 2020 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, one of that nation's highest honors, "for his groundbreaking contributions to developmental neuroscience, and his renowned academic leadership and strong advocacy of science."

In November 2022, Stanford announced that its Board of Trustees would oversee an examination of Tessier-Lavigne's publications, "over allegations that neurobiology papers that he co-authored contain multiple manipulated images". Scientific integrity consultant Elisabeth Bik had raised concerns about four papers (in such journals as Science and Nature) that were co-authored by Tessier-Lavigne, findings which were confirmed by The Stanford Daily. Tessier-Lavigne vehemently denied allegations of any falsification of data, saying "This is a breathtakingly outrageous set of claims that are completely and utterly false." Tessier-Lavigne had notified the journal Science after he was initially informed about the errors in 2015, but the Editor-in-Chief admitted that due to an error they failed to publish the corrections.

On July 19, 2023, after the examination report was released, Tessier-Lavigne announced his resignation as president, effective August 31, and the retraction or correction of five scientific papers. While there was no evidence of data manipulation by Tessier-Lavigne directly, the review committee concluded that "in at least four of the five papers, there was apparent manipulation of research data by others." He stated that he chose to step down "for the good of the University" and that the report refuted allegations of fraud and misconduct against him.

Honours

 * Honorary doctorate, University of Pavia, 2006
 * Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected 2013
 * Elected to the American Philosophical Society, 2017
 * Appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, 2020
 * Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and its Institute of Medicine
 * Member of the Council on Foreign Relations
 * Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
 * Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
 * Fellow of the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences in the United Kingdom
 * Honorary graduand of University College London
 * Honorary fellow of New College, Oxford
 * The Carnegie Corporation of New York honored Tessier-Lavigne with 2019 Great Immigrant Award.
 * International fellow at the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) in 2020.
 * Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Justice Anthony Kennedy in 2022

Personal life
Tessier-Lavigne met his wife, Mary Hynes, while he was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University. They have three children.