Marc Tessier-Lavigne

Marc Tessier-Lavigne
Tessier-Lavigne in 2013
11th President of Stanford University
In office
September 1, 2016 – August 31, 2023
Preceded byJohn L. Hennessy
Succeeded byRichard Saller
10th President of Rockefeller University
In office
March 16, 2011 – September 1, 2016
Preceded byPaul Nurse
Succeeded byRichard P. Lifton
Personal details
BornMarc Trevor Tessier-Lavigne
(1959-12-18) December 18, 1959
Children3
EducationMcGill University (BS)
New College, Oxford (BA)
University College London (PhD)
Scientific career
AwardsGruber Prize in Neuroscience 2020
FieldsNeuroscience
InstitutionsUniversity of California, San Francisco
Genentech
Rockefeller University
Stanford University
ThesisProcessing of Signals and Noise in the Outer Retina of the Salamander (1987)
Doctoral advisorDavid Attwell
Other academic advisorsThomas Jessell
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Marc Trevor Tessier-Lavigne (born December 18, 1959) is a Canadian-American neuroscientist who is co-founder, CEO and chair of AI biotech firm, Xaira Therapeutics. He is also a biology professor at Stanford University, where he previously served as its 11th president, from 2016 to 2023. Prior to Stanford, he was the 10th president of Rockefeller University in New York City, from 2011 to 2016, and a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

He was formerly executive vice president for research and the chief scientific officer at Genentech. In 2011, he joined the boards of directors of Agios Pharmaceuticals, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer Inc. He later joined the board of Juno Therapeutics, in 2014, and co-founded Denali Therapeutics, joining its board, in 2015.

In 2022, the Stanford board of trustees opened an investigation into allegations that Tessier-Lavigne might have been involved in fabricating results in articles published between 2001 and 2008, while working at Genentech. He was subsequently cleared of scientific fraud and misconduct in July 2023, when the trustees' report was released, then announced that he would step down as president of Stanford, effective August 31, 2023. He is known for landmark research into the mechanisms of brain wiring during embryonic development.