The climate vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania stepped down from his role Monday, saying his science advocacy work at times conflicted with his nonpartisan administrative role.
Professor Michael A. Mann has come under fire, including from Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), for his social media posts in the wake of the murder of Charlie Kirk. Mann announced his decision Monday in a blog post, devoid of any mention of the posts.
“I have reluctantly come to the position that the science policy advocacy work I am doing, especially surrounding my new book ‘Science Under Siege’ with vaccine scientist Peter Hotez, at times feels in conflict with the nonpartisan role demanded of me as an administrator at a university with an established institutional neutrality policy,” Mann said.
Mann, whose recent book Science Under Siege discusses the “politically and ideologically motivated opposition to science,” has been in the spotlight for several years for his climate research and advocacy. Mann contributed to climate research showing the sharp rise in average global temperatures after 1900, which made the so-called “hockey stick graph” and drew ire from climate change skeptics. Mann has also publicly denounced President Donald Trump’s anti-windmill agenda as a “quid pro quo to the fossil fuel interests, plutocrats, and petrostate actors who helped return him to power.”
UPenn adopted an institutional neutrality policy on social and political issues in September 2024, a move that several universities have made in recent years as free speech groups such as the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression encourage the adoption in their university rankings.
“Particularly at this moment in time, I don’t feel that I can forsake the public scholarship and advocacy that I am doing and have thus decided to step down from the VPC role,” Mann said in his announcement.
Mann wrote his new book, which discusses public health and climate change, with Hotez, who has criticized vaccine misinformation. Hotez has also publicly criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his vaccine rhetoric.
Mann’s resignation from UPenn comes during a year of turmoil between the Ivy League university and President Donald Trump’s administration, which paused $175 million in federal funding to the university in March over its transgender athlete policies. The Education Department restored the funding in July once the University complied with the administration’s guidance.
The university was also subpoenaed by Congress over a tuition price-fixing investigation in July, and the Education Department opened a foreign funding investigation into UPenn in May.
Mann told the Philadelphia Inquirer that it was his choice to step down from the administrative role. Mann did not respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment over whether he faced any pressure to resign from the university.
Mann was not “driven out” of his position, nor was he fired, UPenn Provost John Jackson told the Daily Pennsylvanian.
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Mann will remain a professor at the university and will continue his role as director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
UPenn’s communications team pointed the Washington Examiner to Mann’s announcement when asked for comment.
