Biden’s top science adviser, Eric Lander, resigns amid reports of bullying

President Joe Biden’s top science adviser, Eric Lander, resigned on Monday evening under an avalanche of backlash over reports of his bullying and mistreatment of subordinates.

The resignation came despite initial insistence from the White House that Lander would remain in his post while corrective actions and remediations were applied to assure a better workplace environment at the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

“It has been a great honor to serve as your Science Advisor and to work with the extraordinarily talented career and non-career colleagues at the Office of Science and Technology Policy,” Lander wrote in a letter to the president. “I am writing to submit my resignation, to be effective no later than February 18 in order to permit an orderly transfer.”

“I am devastated that I caused hurt to past and present colleagues by the way in which I have spoken to them,” he added.

Landers’ resignation constitutes the highest profile departure from the president’s team to date (his office has Cabinet level status) and a black eye specifically for Biden, who had pledged early on that he would have a zero-tolerance policy when it came to bullying.

“The President accepted Dr. Eric Lander’s resignation letter this evening, with gratitude for his work at OSTP on the pandemic, the cancer moonshot, climate change, and other key priorities,” said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. “He knows that Dr. Lander will continue to make important contributions to the scientific community in the years ahead.”

Politico was first to report that the White House had launched a two month investigation into Lander that found “credible evidence” that he bullied his then general counsel, Rcahel Wallace. In addition,14 current and former OSTP staffers shared descriptions of a toxic work environment under Lander where they say Lander frequently bullied, cut off and dismissed subordinates. Several shared specific accusations that he belittled and demeaned women subordinates in particular.

On Monday, Psaki told reporters, the administration was implementing changes to assure a better workplace culture at OSTP and that they’d be monitoring Lander’s conduct more closely.

"The president has been crystal clear with all of us about his high expectations of how he and his staff should be creating a respectful work environment,” Psaki said.

By Monday evening, Landers’ chief of staff Marc Aidinoff sent an all staff email acknowledging that the “behavior described” was “not acceptable” and the office would communicate further with employees about steps being taken to “move forward as a community.”

Later that evening, the White House informed Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Cali.) that Lander would no longer be testifying before her health subcommittee on biomedical research, which had been scheduled for Tuesday. He was also dropped as a speaker before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where he was to appear for the non profit group’s annual meeting next week.

A luminary in the scientific community, Lander won a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant at the age 30, served on the board of the cancer organization Biden spearheaded, and earned numerous accolades for his work mapping the human genome. But he also was a deeply controversial figure, owing to a reputation for having a nasty streak and not giving proper credit to women in his field.