Stanford announced today that it has selected Marc Tessier-Lavigne as the new university president. Tessier-Lavigne, who is currently the president of Rockefeller University in New York City, will start Sept. 1.
The school began its search process to replace outgoing president John Hennessy in September, after Hennessy announced during the summer that he would be stepping down at the end of the 2015-16 year. Hennessy has served as head of the university for 16 years. The 19-person search committee started its search in the fall with a series of community town hall meetings before eventually unanimously selecting Tessier-Lavigne.
He is a Canadian neuroscientist, who grew up in Europe while his father served in the Canadian armed forces with NATO. Before taking over as president of Rockefeller University in 2011, Tessier-Lavigne was a senior vice president at Genentech, where he worked in drug research. His research focuses on the causes of and treatment for degenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. In 2015, he co-founded biotech company Denali Therapeutics, based in South San Francisco. Read the full Stanford press release for more on his history.
"From his extensive experience as a faculty member and accomplished scientist, to leading 1,400 scientists at Genentech, to his most recent transformational accomplishments at Rockefeller University, his skills are both broad and deep," said Kathryn Moler in the press release.
Moler is a professor of physics, chair of the Faculty Senate and a member of the Presidential Search Committee. "All of us on the committee were impressed at how thoughtfully he addressed the many issues and opportunities for Stanford that were raised in our extensive conversations," she said.