Marc Hauser has resigned

Marc Hauser, whom I've discussed before a few times, has resigned from his position at Harvard. This was somewhat unexpected.

Marc Hauser, a well-known Harvard psychology professor who has been on leave since an internal investigation found him guilty of eight counts of scientific misconduct, is leaving the university.

"Marc Hauser has resigned his position as a faculty member, effective August 1, 2011," Harvard spokesman Jeff Neal wrote in an e-mail statement today.

Hauser was a popular professor known for his research and writing on the evolutionary underpinnings of morality and the traits that make the human mind distinct from those of other animals. He took a leave of absence after a faculty investigating committee concluded a three-year investigation -- first reported last August by the Globe. But he was due to return to the university this fall, a prospect that made many of his former colleagues uncomfortable.

A large majority of the Harvard psychology faculty had voted not to allow him to teach this year, and Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith had supported the decision.

"While on leave over the past year, I have begun doing some extremely interesting and rewarding work focusing on the educational needs of at-risk teenagers. I have also been offered some exciting opportunities in the private sector," Hauser wrote in a resignation letter to the dean, dated July 7. "While I may return to teaching and research in the years to come, I look forward to focusing my energies in the coming year on these new and interesting challenges."

Hauser did not respond to e-mail or voicemail messages today.

source

More like this

I am sad to report that it is indeed confirmed by official sources that primatologist Marc Hauser engaged in several instances of what is being termed misconduct while carrying out experiments in his lab. Dean Michael Smith issued the following letter to members of the Harvard community today…
In February, Penn State issued a report clearing climatologist Michael Mann of 3 charges of academic misconduct arising from the theft of emails from a server at a British university. More recently, a British parliamentary report dismissed claims that climate scientists had behaved improperly.…
For those of you who have been blissfully out of the news (not a bad thing to be doing in the summer), Harvard professor Marc Hauser has been accused of scientific fraud. It now appears that Harvard had concluded its investigation and swept the findings under the rug for months/i>: Marc Hauser'…
I know Marc Hauser, and I trust him. I worked with him for a few years as a colleague on the faculty in the Anthropology department on various administrative matters (such as graduate admission and undergraduate program development) and we taught together. We are very different kinds of people,…

What I need to know is, when he used a computer, was it running Linux or was it running the Mac-stuff, or was it Windows?

By Comrade Carter (not verified) on 19 Jul 2011 #permalink

Well, on the bright side, one permanent academic position is now up for grabs. Meaning that the number of starving post-docs with practically no hope of ever getting a stable job might soon be knocked down to roughly infinity minus one.

...at least for a couple seconds, before yet another batch of hapless freshly-minted PhDs hit the non-existing job market.

(Nah, I'm not bitter. Why you're askin'?)

Secret inside info sez he was given the choice of resignation or having yet more charges brought.

By Anonymous goss… (not verified) on 20 Jul 2011 #permalink