An Israeli scientist was allegedly subject to a hostile and discriminatory work environment involving the alleged malicious distortion of his research, a fabricated sexual harassment investigation and an alleged retaliatory firing which all threatened to jeopardize his entire career, according to a bombshell federal lawsuit filed last week.
Dr. Shay Laps, an Israeli chemist who received his Ph.D. from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, joined Stanford University with the hope of furthering his award-winning research into peptides and proteins under the mentorship of more experienced scientific minds, according to the suit. Laps was encouraged to join Stanford after multiple meetings with lab leader Dr. Danny Chou, who had expressed interest in his earlier research and promised multiple years of support in his lab.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the Northern District of California by the Louis D. Brandeis Center and Cohen Williams, claimed Dr. Laps - who joined Dr. Chou's lab in April 2024, six months after Hamas' devastating Oct. 7 attack on Israel - was allegedly greeted with outright hostility from the moment he stepped foot in the lab, with no apparent explanation.
TRUMP ADMIN PROBE ACCUSES HARVARD OF DISCRIMINATING AGAINST JEWISH STUDENTS, THREATENS TO PULL ALL FUNDING
A research professional in the lab allegedly told Dr. Laps never to speak to her on his first day joining the team; the suit stated that his colleagues were aware before he joined of his Jewish identity.
The researcher's campaign of hostility allegedly went so far that the lab materials Laps ordered were never delivered on time, even though his colleagues all received requested materials in a timely manner. When Dr. Laps attempted to address a particular holdup, she allegedly told him to contact another colleague who was currently hospitalized - a gesture which Laps interpreted as a call for him to get lost.
She also allegedly fabricated results from one of his experiments and tried to trick him into destroying the evidence, the lawsuit claimed.
Laps was confused as to why the lab staffer was so overtly hostile towards him and no one else in the lab, but became suspicious that it was due to his Israeli identity when he discovered that she associated with many radical anti-Israel activists on campus.
ISRAELI COLUMBIA PROFESSOR LEAVES SCHOOL OVER FAILURE TO ADDRESS ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS
Stanford has been plagued with a culture of antisemitism, according to a 2024 report commissioned by the university, which exploded after Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel that launched the Gaza war. A Stanford professor allegedly made Jewish students stand in a corner and called them "colonizers" while describing Hamas terrorists as "freedom fighters" shortly after the attacks, among other incidents.
Lap's short-lived tenure at Stanford ultimately spiraled into a wild alleged conspiracy to get him fired by fabricating a sexual harassment investigation against him, the lawsuit states. Dr. Chou, who had initially been supportive of Dr. Laps, called Laps into his office in August 2024 and informed him that a Title IX investigation had been opened against him regarding sexual harassment.
Chou urged Laps to resign quietly from the university and to leave the country to avoid potential censure, per the lawsuit. Laps, who was aghast at the accusations, contacted Stanford's Title IX office himself and was allegedly informed that no investigation had been opened against him and that he was in good standing at the university.
Chou didn't respond to a request for comment.
"This really made my jaw drop, the way they treated the guy, just unbelievable," Brandeis Center Vice Chair Rachel Lerman told Fox News Digital.
Laps filed his own discrimination complaints in September 2024, and attempted to alert University President Jonathan Levin and School of Medicine Dean Lloyd B. Minor after which he was allegedly fired and unceremoniously locked out of the lab, the lawsuit stated. Laps believe this to have been an act of retaliation. Laps ultimately ended his association with Stanford in February 2025 after less than a year.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Stanford denied any wrongdoing.
"Stanford takes any allegation of antisemitism very seriously. In this instance and based on all the allegations that Dr. Laps reported directly to the institution, a thorough internal investigation found that they were unsubstantiated," a Stanford University representative told Fox News Digital in a statement.
