Biography

Pioneering neuroscientist, biotechnology executive and academic leader Marc Tessier-Lavigne served as Stanford University’s eleventh president from September 2016 through August 2023.

Dr. Tessier-Lavigne was born in Trenton, Ontario, Canada. He received undergraduate degrees in physics from McGill University and in philosophy and physiology from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He earned a Ph.D. inphysiology from University College London (UCL) and performed postdoctoral work at UCL and at Columbia University. He then held faculty positions at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and subsequently at Stanford University, where he was the Susan B. Ford Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences. While at UCSF and Stanford he was also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

A world leader in the study of brain development and repair, Dr. Tessier-Lavigne’s research has implications for the treatment of degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as spinal cord injuries. Dr. Tessier-Lavigne and his colleagues revealed how neural circuits in the brain form during embryonic development by identifying molecules that direct the formation and remodeling of connections among nerve cells. Defects in these mechanisms lead to neurological disorders. These mechanisms also provide targets to assist regeneration of nerve connections after trauma. His contributions have been recognized by numerous prizes and honors, including the 2020 Gruber Neuroscience Prize and his election as a Member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), the National Academy of Medicine (USA) and the American Philosophical Society, and as a Fellow of the Royal Society (UK), the Royal Society of Canada, the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK), the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has also been named an Officer of the Order of Canada.

In 2003, Dr. Tessier-Lavigne was recruited to biotechnology company Genentech, where he became Executive Vice President for Research and Chief Scientific Officer, directing 1,400 scientists in disease research and drug discovery for cancer, immune disorders, infectious diseases and neurodegenerative diseases, while maintaining an active research laboratory.

In 2011, Dr. Tessier-Lavigne became President of The Rockefeller University, a leading biomedical research university in New York City. At Rockefeller, Dr. Tessier-Lavigne worked with faculty, students, staff and trustees to develop and execute a nine-year strategic plan focused on junior and mid-career faculty recruitment; enhancement of graduate and postdoctoral education; establishment of interdisciplinary research programs and acquisition of advanced research instruments; expansion of the university’s translational medical infrastructure; and a $500 million, two-acre campus expansion project in the heart of Manhattan that broke ground in 2015.

Early in his tenure as Stanford president, Dr. Tessier-Lavigne, in partnership with Stanford Provost Persis Drell, launched a long-range planning process that produced a new strategic vision, announced in May 2019, for Stanford as a purposeful university. Built on more than 2,800 ideas received from across the Stanford community, the vision set priorities across the areas of research, education and community, with the overarching goal of setting the university on a course to make meaningful contributions for the 21st century. 

The vision transformed the university with forward-looking initiatives. These included the opening, in September 2022, of Stanford’s first new school in 75 years, the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. The university also established accelerators in four crucial areas—health, learning, social issues, and sustainability—to speed the application of knowledge to help solve global challenges.

During Dr. Tessier-Lavigne’s tenure, the university launched the COLLEGE program, a shared experience for first-year students focused on civic responsibility. The university also made significant strides to improve access and affordability for students across the socioeconomic spectrum and placed intentional focus, under the newly-created IDEAL initiative, on programs to enhance diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Dr. Tessier-Lavigne also led Stanford through the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, the Stanford community reimagined university operations from the ground up, found creative ways to enhance remote teaching and broaden access to Stanford resources, and safely restarted on-campus research operations as early as possible—at the same time as Stanford’s researchers and health care workers were contributing to the global response to COVID-19. 

At a national and international level, Dr. Tessier-Lavigne has been an active spokesperson for societal support of science, through editorials, advocacy and congressional testimony.

Dr. Tessier-Lavigne serves on several scientific advisory, non-profit, and corporate boards. He has cofounded two start-up companies, targeting neurological disease and neurodegenerative disease.