A Massachusetts jury recently awarded scientist David Sabatini $6 million and rejected the sexual-misconduct claims that had ended his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and shuttered his research laboratory at the Whitehead Institute.
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that → award → Institute
The jury’s seven women and six men brought a measure of objectivity and decency to the facts that the leaders of MIT and Whitehead could not.
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leaders → bring → MIT
The verdict vindicates Sabatini, who has long maintained that his accuser, Kristin Knouse, had lied.
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accuser → vindicate → Sabatini
But the legal fight took years of his life and nearly ruined him financially.
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fight → take → him
The trial exposed how thin — and how rotten — MIT’s and Whitehead’s case against Sabatini had been all along.
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case → expose → Sabatini
MIT and Whitehead owe the public a reckoning.
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MIT → owe → reckoning
The Trump administration must investigate MIT and Whitehead.
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administration → investigate → MIT
Before 2021, scientists revered Sabatini as one of the greatest molecular cell biologists alive.
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scientists → revere → biologists
He ran a major lab at Whitehead, held a professorship at MIT, served as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and received tens of millions of dollars in federal funding.
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He → run → funding
Sabatini’s " groundbreaking " research could yield new cancer and aging therapies and save countless lives.
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research → yield → lives
Predictions swirled that he’d one day win the Nobel Prize.
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he → swirl → Prize
It all came crashing down.
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It → come → ?
Evidence at trial shows that Knouse — who led her own lab — launched a campaign she termed "covert operation dethrone" to topple Sabatini after he ended their roughly year-and-a-half-long relationship.
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he → show → relationship
She messaged one friend that Sabatini was going to be "Weinstein’ed out of science" ; another that she was "out for blood."
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she → message → blood
Knouse told colleagues that Sabatini had harassed and assaulted her, and in the fall of 2020 took her claims to Whitehead’s new director, Ruth Lehmann.
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Sabatini → tell → director
Lehmann proved an eager audience.
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Lehmann → prove → audience
After one meeting, Knouse reported that Lehmann acted "as if she wants a formal reason to fire" Sabatini.
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she → report → Sabatini
After another meeting, Lehmann "indicated she plans to fire him."
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she → indicate → him
"If I don’t do this," Lehmann reportedly said , "how can anyone ever believe I’m committed to changing this place?"
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I → do → place
Lehmann denied making the comments in a later deposition.
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Lehmann → deny → deposition
Whitehead eventually hired a law firm to conduct an investigation, but later reporting and trial evidence indicate the investigation had a largely predetermined outcome.
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investigation → hire → outcome
The firm’s final report reached no conclusion on whether Sabatini’s and Knouse’s relationship had been consensual.
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relationship → reach → conclusion
Mostly it faulted Sabatini for not reporting his relationship with Knouse to HR and for a "sexualized undercurrent" in his lab –an environment which it deemed, along with the relationship, to violate an anti-harassment policy.
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it → fault → policy
Perhaps most shocking, though, the report took umbrage with Sabatini’s focus on "science above all else" and his "propensity" to "praise or gravitate" toward those demonstrating "scientific success."
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report → take → success
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute quickly fired Sabatini; that same day, after Whitehead told him it would dismiss him, he resigned.
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he → fire → him
Which might leave you wondering: Did administrators have no sense of proportionality, no sense of the gravity of removing Sabatini — that it would wreck not just one man and one career but an entire research ecosystem?
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it → leave → man
But then it’s always easier to destroy than create.
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it → ’ → ?
She ranked "diversity and disparities," alongside research, as one of the areas most "important for science."
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She → rank → science
As Whitehead director, she hired DEI officers and instituted a new DEI Council, DEI Seminar Series, DEI Heritage Email series, and an internship program targeting "historically underrepresented groups."
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she → hire → groups
And she oversaw both a DEI strategic plan that pledged to hire "diverse talent" and the publication of Whitehead’s first DEI report, which touted the "increasing diversity in our community" alongside statistics showing a decrease in the percentage of white employees between 2020 and 2022.
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which → oversee → 2020
After Sabatini’s removal from Whitehead, Nergis Mavalvala, MIT’s dean of science, was part of a three-member committee that convened to consider his tenure at MIT.
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that → convene → MIT
It was a solemn assignment: revocations of tenure anywhere are exceedingly rare, and there’s no public record of a single case ever at MIT.
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revocations → ’ → MIT
Nevertheless, Mavalvala testified at trial that the committee hadn’t spoken to any former members of Sabatini’s lab about the veracity of the accusations against him — including the 34 who had written in his support.
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who → testify → support
In early 2022, the committee recommended that MIT revoke Sabatini’s tenure.
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committee → recommend → tenure
Under intense pressure, Sabatini resigned.
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Sabatini → resign → pressure
What explains the committee’s actions?
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What → explain → actions
On the day Whitehead gave Sabatini the law firm’s report, Mavalvala wrote to Lehmann about its contents and assured her that "there is complete alignment between our viewpoints on this whole sordid affair."
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Mavalvala → give → affair
She then added : "I find myself say[ing] ‘Yeah, go Ruth!’ almost every time you speak.
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you → add → ?
Her later emails heap exuberant praise on the Whitehead director, with lines such as : "OMG, you are a trailblazer Ruth."
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you → heap → lines
On the stand, Mavalvala said that her committee’s investigation into Sabatini was unbiased and independent of Whitehead.
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investigation → say → Whitehead
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
