The Hoover Tower rises above Stanford University in this aerial photo in Stanford, California, U.S. Photo: REUTERS/Noah Berger/File Photo

Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne, who led an investigation of institutional antisemitism at Stanford University, will resign as president following revelations of data manipulation — which he did not personally commit — in decades of scientific research he authored, co-authored, or administered.

“Stanford is greater than any one of us,” Tessier-Lavigne said in a statement on Wednesday after a report disclosed the extent of the deception in his work. “It needs a president whose leadership is not hampered by such discussions. I therefore concluded that I should step down before the start of classes. This decision is rooted in my respect for the university and its community and my unwavering commitment to doing what I believe is in the best interests of Stanford.”

According to multiple reports, Tessier-Lavinge’s road to Wednesday’s announcement began when The Stanford Daily reported in Nov. 2022  that users of PubPeer, a web forum where scientists discuss and critique papers published in their fields, alleged pseudonymously that images in several publications he co-authored had been doctored. Additionally, a study he published in 2009 which purported to have discovered why the brains of Alzheimer’s patients degenerate was found to be irreproducible and was previously the subject of a fraud investigation conducted by biotechnology firm that commissioned it.

Tessier-Lavigne’s resignation comes on the heels of his historic efforts uncover antisemitic discrimination at Stanford University in the past and present.

Last October, a panel of university academics he commissioned found that in 1953 former Stanford director of admissions Rixford Snyder lobbied for discarding Stanford University’s policy of “paying no attention to the race or religion of applicants” after expressing in a memo “concerns about the number of Jewish students.” Snyder specifically noted that two schools, Beverly Hills High School and Fairfax School, had substantial Jewish populations. That fall, enrollments from both significantly decreased to levels “no other schools experienced.” Snyder likely received implicit approval from others in the administration, the report added.

“I wish to apologize to the Jewish community, and to our entire university community, both for the actions documented in this report to suppress the admission of Jewish students in the 1950s and for the university’s denials of those actions in the period that followed,” Tessier-Lavigne said when the report’s findings were disclosed. “These actions were wrong. They were damaging. And they were unacknowledged for too long.”

In May, Tessier-Lavigne launched a new advisory committee on Jewish life as the campus reeled from a torrent of antisemitic incidents. In April, a swastika was etched into a metal panel of a bathroom, and a student’s mezuzah was desecrated. Weeks earlier, a Jewish student found an image of Hitler and swastikas on their door.

Tessier-Lavigne pledged that the university would investigate the incidents with “vigor.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.