Jason Altom (1971 – 1998) was a Ph.D. student working in the research group of Nobel laureate Elias James Corey at Harvard University. He committed suicide by taking potassium cyanide in 1998, citing in his suicide note "abusive research supervisors" as one reason for taking his life. Altom was studying a complex natural product and felt enormous pressure to finish the molecule before starting his academic career.[1]
Altom's suicide highlighted the pressures on Ph.D. students, problems of isolation in graduate school, and sources of tension between graduate mentors and their students. His case prompted many universities to insist that Ph.D. students have an advisory committee in addition to a supervisor, to whom they might turn for support: James Anderson, who became Harvard Chemistry Department Chairman, stated that "Jason's death prompted an examination of the role the department should play in graduate students' lives". Anderson went on to promise that students will also have "confidential and seamless access" to psychological counselling services, paid for by the department.
However, as of 2004, this access was completely terminated. It is unknown whether any vestiges of the department's nine-step plan toward graduate student health and happiness remain, though it was highly-publicized following Altom's suicide. As a general policy, Harvard does not provide regular psychotherapy for its students at any college or department, instead providing 12 sessions of regular outside care, though these costs are usually substantial for most graduate students, totaling about 20 percent of the cost of each session in addition to a 250 dollar copay. As a result, the care provided does not meet the criteria outlined and publicized following Altom's death.
Corey, speaking of the suicide note, states: "[T]hat letter doesn't make sense. At the end, Jason must have been delusional or irrational in the extreme." Corey also is on record as stating that he never questioned Mr. Altom's intellectual contributions. "I did my best to guide Jason as a mountain guide would to guide someone climbing a mountain. I did my best every step of the way," Corey states. "My conscience is clear. Everything Jason did came out of our partnership. We never had the slightest disagreement."
The molecule on which Altom was working, aspidophytine, was subsequently completed by postdoctoral research associates and published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 1999.[2] The article was dedicated to the memory of Jason Altom.