Biden's top science adviser resigns over mistreatment of staff

Eric Lander, President Biden's top science adviser, resigned Monday night after he acknowledged mistreating his subordinates and apologized for demeaning them.

This comes after US media reports said an internal probe had concluded that Lander violated the workplace policy.

"The President (Joe Biden) accepted Dr. Eric Lander's resignation letter this evening with gratitude for his work at OSTP on the pandemic, the Cancer Moonshot, climate change, and other key priorities. He knows that Dr. Lander will continue to make important contributions to the scientific community in the years ahead," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeted.

In the letter, Lander said that he is devastated that he caused hurt to past and present colleagues.

"I have sought to push myself and my colleagues to reach our shared goals -- including at times challenging and criticizing. But it is clear that things I said, and the way I said them, crossed the line at times into being disrespectful and demeaning, to both men and women," he said.

Earlier, the White House had said Lander would remain in his role with a corrective course of action, despite the findings of the internal probe.