More than 80 current and former New York City-based Columbia University students and postdoctoral fellows signed a petition urging university officials to publicize why they ended Thomas Jessell's, PhD, administrative positions at the institution and closed his laboratory, according to a STAT News investigation.
Here are five things to know about the case.
1. Dr. Jessell is regarded by some as one of the world's foremost researchers on the biology of brain cells and how sensory and motor neurons coordinate movements. However, in a March 7 statement to The New York Times, Columbia University administrators said the institution "has ended the administrative positions of Dr. Thomas Jessell and will be winding down the Jessell lab" following "an investigation that revealed serious violations of university policies and values governing the behavior of faculty members in an academic environment."
2. Columbia University officials claim Dr. Jessell has not been involved with operations at the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Initiative since the institution began investigating him last December. Officials also told The New York Times the university would work to preserve the lab's research and help the approximately 25 employees, which include graduate and postdoctoral students, to continue their careers.
3. However, in an email to STAT, Richard S. Mann, PhD, the Higgins Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and principal investigator at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute, said Dr. Jessell is still expected to come into the lab two days a week, with other faculty members present, through May to continue advising his students. The lab will also reportedly continue to receive financial support for the next 15 months.
4. Four current or former members of the university's neuroscience department told STAT Dr. Jessell had been suspected of research misconduct and was said to have engaged in inappropriate relationships, according to the report.
5. The university's refusal to disclose the details regarding Dr. Jessell's termination led current and former students to sign an online petition calling on Columbia officials to be more transparent about their decisions regarding faculty and staff and to identify if or when sexual misconduct played a role in their decision-making.
"Rumors have been swirling, and without confirmation or denial, nothing can be definitively known. In this era of #MeToo, society has been reckoning with the effects of sexual harassers and abusers have on workplaces," the petition reads. "We appreciate that President [Lee] Bollinger has pledged to ban all undergraduate-professor relationships, but graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are even more dependent on their mentors to progress professionally. Students and fellows require guidance and close working relationships with mentors and are not potential sexual opportunities. Whether or not misconduct occurs, it is unacceptable for them to ever be treated as such."
To access the full STAT report, click here.