Theo Baker | |
---|---|
Born | 2004 or 2005 (age 18–19) |
Organization | The Stanford Daily |
Parents |
Theo Baker (born 2004 or 2005) is an American investigative journalist for The Stanford Daily, the student newspaper of Stanford University.[1] In 2023, he became the youngest recipient of the George Polk Award for his reporting that led to the resignation of Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne.[1][2]
See also: Marc Tessier-Lavigne § Stanford University and research controversy |
As a freshman reporter at The Stanford Daily, Baker began publishing stories in November 2022 about accusations that Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne had altered images used in research papers, leading to a formal investigation from the university.[3][4] Baker learned about the accusations through the scientific review website PubPeer and brought them to scientific integrity expert Elisabeth Bik.[3] A lawyer representing Tessier-Lavigne sent letters to Baker, describing his reporting as "replete with falsehoods".[5]
In July 2023, the final university report found that Tessier-Lavigne's research "fell below customary standards of scientific rigor and process" but did not constitute fraud.[6] Baker subsequently published another story that the investigating panel did not grant some witnesses anonymity, so they were unable to testify because of active non-disclosure agreements.[3] Tessier-Lavigne announced his resignation as Stanford's president on July 19, 2023, with multiple major news outlets, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, attributing it as a direct result of The Stanford Daily stories.[6][7]
In February 2023, The Stanford Daily received one of the 2022 George Polk Awards for its reporting on Tessier-Lavigne, the first time an independent, student-run newspaper has won the award.[8][9] The Polk Awards gave Baker a "Special Award", making him the youngest ever to win it.[1][9] He has also received a James Madison Freedom of Information Award from the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.[2]
Baker is from the Washington, D.C., area[3] and is the son of journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser.[10] In response to criticism that he is a "nepo baby", Baker said that he was fortunate to have good role models, but that he keeps his parents "entirely separate" from his reporting.[11] Baker told Teen Vogue, that he had previously said he would never become a journalist but changed his mind to "feel connected to [his] late grandfather, who passed just two weeks before [he] started at Stanford, and who would always sit down and talk about his time doing student journalism."[12]