Bill Ackman to check all MIT faculty members for plagiarism after wife Neri Oxman accused of copying parts of thesis

Bill Ackman said on Friday he will begin checks on the work of all current faculty members of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for plagiarism after his wife, Neri Oxman, was accused of having lifted paragraphs of her dissertation at the university without citation.

In a post on social platform X (formerly Twitter), the billionaire said that faculty members, including the president as well as board members, will be subject to checks using MIT’s own plagiarism standards.

“We will share our findings in the public domain as they are completed in the spirit of transparency,” Ackman said, adding that his family was being attacked over his “actions to address problems in higher education.”

Business Insider published a report on January 4 alleging that Oxman had failed to cite, and in at least one case, lifted directly, passages from other authors without citation in her 2010 doctoral dissertation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Responding to the report in a social media post, Oxman acknowledged some sources had been improperly cited and apologised for the errors.

Ackman said in Friday’s post that Business Insider had “just” contacted Oxman after identifying other plagiarism in her dissertation. He said the outlet relayed plans to publish its story “this evening,” leaving them with insufficient time to research the claims.