Tonegawa Steps Down!

Toadygawa is history! At least at Picower. The Chronicle's news blog reports that Susumu Tonegawa is stepping down as head of Picower after an university investigation found he "behaved inappropriately when he tried to discourage a young female scholar from accepting a job offer from MIT". Sadly, the university declined to discipline anyone and we are told Toadygawa is stepping down on his own. I like to think he was strong-armed into stepping down. I am pretty sure he didn't just up and do it out of the goodness of his heart because of his concern for the larger MIT community. Or, as they say in such situations, because he wanted to spend more time with his family. Still, it would have been much nicer and more fitting, in my opinion, to have him fired.

The MIT report on the investigation is no longer available on the web, but President Hockfield's letter to the faculty is still available.

I am grateful to Coturnix for alerting me to this news.

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Now the letter to faculty link is dead too! Nooooo! MIT is taking away all our fun...