Theo Baker spent four years investigating Stanford. Before he leaves, here's what he found. | TechCrunch

"I arrived thinking tech and entrepreneurship was the path for me. I joined the student hackathon, Tree Hacks, helped run it, skipped ahead to the CS weeder class. But my grandfather, with whom I was very close, had passed away a few weeks before I arrived, and he talked about working on the student paper more than anyone I'd ever known. So I joined the student paper to feel connected to him - it was supposed to be a hobby, a way to meet people and explore campus."

"Very quickly things spiraled from there. My first few stories got more reception than we'd imagined, tips started flooding in, and one led me to a pseudonymous website called PubPeer, where scientists dissect published research. There were comments, seven years old at the time, suspecting that papers co-authored by Stanford's president, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, had images that were duplicated, spliced, or otherwise irregular. I was a month into my time at Stanford when that investigation"

"In his first semester of college, Baker broke the story that forced Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne to resign - work that earned him a George Polk Award, one of journalism's highest honors. Warner Brothers and producer Amy Pascal have optioned the rights to that story. And Tuesday, with graduation less than a month away, Baker publishes How to Rule the World, a sweeping account of his time at Stanford and the school's often insidious relationship with the venture capital industry."

A Stanford student arrived intending to pursue coding and entrepreneurship, joining hackathons and computer science coursework. After a close family member died, he joined the student newspaper to stay connected and meet people. Early reporting gained unexpected attention, leading to tips and a pseudonymous research commentary site. Comments there pointed to irregularities in papers co-authored by Stanford’s president, Marc Tessier-Lavigne. The investigation escalated quickly, culminating in work that earned a George Polk Award. Film rights were optioned by major entertainment companies, and the student later published a book describing his Stanford experience and the school’s relationship with venture capital.

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