Eric Lander

director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Science Advisor to the President

Eric Steven Lander (born February 3, 1957) is an American mathematician and geneticist. He was the 11th Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2021 until 2022 during the Joe Biden administration.

Eric Lander
Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy
In office
June 2, 2021 – February 18, 2022
PresidentJoe Biden
Preceded byKelvin Droegemeier
Succeeded byArati Prabhakar
Science Advisor to the President
In office
January 25, 2021 – February 18, 2022
PresidentJoe Biden
Preceded byKelvin Droegemeier
Succeeded byFrancis Collins (acting)
Arati Prabhakar (designate)
Personal details
Born (1957-02-03) February 3, 1957 (age 67)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic[1]
Spouse(s)Lori Lander
EducationPrinceton University (AB)
Wolfson College, Oxford (MS, DPhil)
AwardsMacArthur Fellowship (1987)
Dickson Prize (1997)
Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service (1998)
Gairdner Award (2002)
Harvey Prize (2012)
Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2013)
Scientific career
InstitutionsBroad Institute
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ThesisTopics in Algebraic Coding Theory (1980)
Doctoral advisorPeter Cameron
Doctoral studentsJulie Segre[2]
Kenro Kusumi[3]
Manolis Kellis[4]
Erez Lieberman Aiden
Mark Daly

Lander was a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was a professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical School.

He was a former member of the Whitehead Institute, and the founding director of the Broad Institute. He was co-chair of U.S. President Barack Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.[5][6] He is a 1987 MacArthur Fellow.

On January 15, 2021 Lander was nominated to be Director of Office of Science and Technology Policy by then President-elect Joe Biden.[7] Biden also upgraded the office to cabinet-level office.[7] He was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 28, 2021.[8]

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 bullying staffers.[9] Lander admitted to the behavior and apologized on February 4, before resigning later on February 18.[10][11]

References

change
  1. Facher, Lev (February 1, 2021). "Eric Lander Is Brilliant, Connected, and Controversial. Now Joe Biden Wants Him to 'Reinvigorate' American Science". Stat. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  2. Segre, Julia (1996). Positional cloning of nude, a fork head transcription factor : genetic, physical and transcriptional maps of the region and mutations in the mouse and rat. mit.edu (PhD thesis). MIT. hdl:1721.1/41341. 
  3. Kusumi, Kenro (1997). Positional cloning and characterization of the mouse pudgy locus. mit.edu (PhD thesis). MIT. hdl:1721.1/49612. 
  4. Kamvysselis, Manolis (2003). Computational comparative genomics : genes, regulation, evolution. mit.edu (PhD thesis). MIT. hdl:1721.1/7999. OCLC 53277177.  
  5. Nair, P. (2011). "QnAs with Eric S. Lander". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108 (28): 11319. Bibcode:2011PNAS..10811319N. doi:10.1073/pnas.1106996108. PMC 3136317. PMID 21606349.
  6. Lander, E. S. (2004). "Eric S. Lander". Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. 3 (9): 730. doi:10.1038/nrd1514. PMID 15368656. S2CID 19725860.
  7. 7.0 7.1 "Biden will elevate White House science office to cabinet-level". The Washington Post. January 15, 2021.
  8. "Biden's top scientist quickly confirmed by Senate". Politico. May 28, 2021.
  9. Thompson, Alex (February 7, 2022). "Biden's top science adviser bullied and demeaned subordinates, according to White House investigation". Politico. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  10. Thompson, Alex. "'I am deeply sorry for my conduct': Biden's top science adviser apologizes to staff". POLITICO. Retrieved 2022-02-08.
  11. Thompson, Alex (February 7, 2022). "Biden's top science adviser, Eric Lander, resigns amid reports of bullying". Politico. Retrieved February 7, 2022.