Eric Lander's resignation as President Biden's science adviser and director of the Office of Science Technology and Policy (OSTP), amid allegations that he bullied and demeaned subordinates, is the latest disappointment from an administration that has been struggling to guide the nation with sound science and science leadership. Lander's departure now leaves empty the first ever OSTP directorship to be added to the President's Cabinet. This vacancy joins the absence of permanent directors for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), not to mention a secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) so disengaged as to appear absent. Let's hope the president appoints the best people-in brilliance and character-into these positions, stops undermining his own workplace policy of respect and dignity, and gets the country back on course to follow the science, as he pledged.