Michael Marletta, the president of the Scripps Research Institute, is resigning, reports Erika Check Hayden at the Nature News Blog.
This announcement comes on the heels of his attempt to have Scripps be acquired by the University of Southern California in the hopes of creating a "relationship that would enhance the missions of both institutions." That plan, which riled the Scripps faculty, was scuttled earlier this month.
Marletta, Check Hayden notes, did not consult with faculty during the USC negotiations, and the faculty told the Scripps board of trustees that they had a nearly unanimous vote of no confidence in Marletta.
"I think we are more optimistic than we have been in many years, because we feel like we have some control over our own fate," Scripps biologist Jeanne Loring tells the Nature News Blog.
Check Hayden notes, though, that the conditions that led Marletta to pursue the merger — including a $21 million budget gap — still exist and whoever replaces him will have to address them.