White Guys In Science – Eric Lander
By White guy scientists are in the news again. With E. O. Wilson’s death, his legacy is being reviewed, and some of it is not nice. President Biden’s science adviser, Eric Lander, has had to to apologize to his staff for bullying and other bad behavior toward them.
None of this is a surprise.
When Eric Lander was nominated in 2021, Peter Aldhous at BuzzFeed News collected a number of incidents showing Lander to not work well with women.
“You know, he’s a complicated figure,” Aldhous quoted Michael Eisen. That phrase is a danger sign. Lander was better than Donald Trump’s choices, of course – any real scientist would be. But “complicated” means he’s got baggage. Lander has shown extreme competitiveness in the “genome wars” leading to deciphering the human genome and in the controversy over the discovery of the gene-editing CRISPR. The Nobel Committee disagreed with Lander’s version of the latter.
It was time for the President’s science adviser to come from a biological discipline, rather than physics. But Lander shares limitations with physicists. He started his career in mathematics and shifted to genome studies. For the President’s science adviser, it’s a limitation to believe you’re the smartest guy in the room. Lander shares that with physicists.
The President’s science advisor runs the Office of Science and Technology Policy. That’s a managerial function, likely to be poorly carried out by the smartest guy in the room. That’s were the recent problems were.
The two-month investigation found “credible evidence” that Lander — a Cabinet member and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy who the White House touts as a key player in the pandemic response — was “bullying” toward his then-general counsel, Rachel Wallace, according to a recorded January briefing on the investigation’s findings.
Ah, bullying a woman, and others in the office as well. I should mention that it was Jennifer Doudna who shared the Nobel Prize for CRISPR, while Lander advocated for a man.
The investigation found credible evidence of instances of multiple women having complained to other staff about negative interactions with Dr. Lander, where he spoke to them in a demeaning or abrasive way in front of other staff.
Lander refused to be interviewed by Politico, which broke the story. He issued a real apology, not pro-forma, but I doubt his behavior will change by much. Most likely, he will exclude the women as much as he can.
Part 2 on E. O. Wilson to come.
Update: Lander has resigned.
Cross-posted to Nuclear Diner