Jason Altom [SEP] date of death
Suicide of Jason Altom
Jason Altom (6 October 1971 – 15 August 1998) was a Ph.D. student working in the research group of Nobel laureate Elias James Corey at Harvard University. He killed himself 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.
Altom's suicide highlighted the pressures on Ph.D. students, problems of isolation in graduate
Corey was Jason Altom. Altom's suicide caused controversy because he explicitly blamed Corey, his research advisor, for his suicide. Corey was devastated and bewildered by Altom's death. Altom cited in his 1998 farewell note "abusive research supervisors" as one reason for taking his life. Altom's suicide note also contained explicit instructions on how to reform the relationship between students and their supervisors. Corey is quoted as stating: "That letter doesn't make sense. At the end, Jason must have been delusional or irrational in