Thursday, 4:30 PM
Embattled MIT scientist gives up research center post
By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff
Nobel Laureate Susumu Tonegawa has announced he will resign as head of the MIT neuroscience center he founded, two weeks after a university investigation found he acted inappropriately when he discouraged a young neuroscientist from accepting a job at MIT because she would be competing with him.
Tonegawa will remain a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In a statement released late Thursday, Tonegawa wrote that he would step down from his position as director of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at the end of the year "so I can devote all my energy and focus to research."
Tonegawa declined to comment further when reached by phone.
"Let's be absolutely clear: Susumu was not asked to step down," Professor Earl K. Miller told the Globe in an email. "What Susumu has done is noble. He decided that the best way for the MIT neuroscience community to move on would be for him to step aside and put an end to these distractions."
Provost L. Rafael Reif released a statement praising Tonegawa.
"We respect Professor Tonegawa's decision to step down," Reif wrote, thanking him for making the Picower "a world leader in neuroscience research."
