Top scientist suspended over attack on female physicists

A top scientist who claimed before an audience of young, female physicists that physics "was invented and built by men" and that men were now suffering from pro-female discrimination has been suspended from working with the European nuclear research center Cern.

Professor Alessandro Strumia, who teaches at Pisa University, outraged many during his presentation in Geneva about "gender and high-energy physics". The event was organized by Cern, which currently has its first female director-general at the helm. The organization immediately attacked his comments and says it will now conduct a full investigation.

"Cern always strives to carry out its scientific mission in a peaceful and inclusive environment," the facility said in a statement.

It noted the professor's presentation, in which he said physics was "becoming sexist against men", was "contrary to the Cern Code of Conduct".

Pisa University is one of Cern's collaborators and Strumia is a frequent visitor to the Cern facility in Geneva, which is also called The European Organization for Nuclear Research.

In his presentation, Strumia argued physics is not sexist against women.

"However, the truth does not matter, because it is part of a political battle coming from outside," the BBC reported him as saying at the event. Strumia used graphs and overhead slides to contend inferior female scientists were being hired ahead of men.

Strumia told the broadcaster: "People say that physics is sexist, physics is racist. I made some simple checks and discovered that it wasn't, that it was becoming sexist against men, and said so."

But other research shows this is not the case. A major 2012 study published in the US scientific journal PNAS found science faculty members favored male names over female names in otherwise identical job applications. And female scientists have taken to social media to describe prejudice they have faced.

The Guardian newspaper said attendees of the conference questioned why Strumia was invited to speak, given that his controversial views were well known. The paper said he was insisting he dealt only in facts.

Nobel laureate Professor Tim Hunt caused similar outrage in 2015 when he said during a conference in South Korea in front of an audience of young, female scientists that the "trouble with girls" in science is that "when you criticize them, they cry". He subsequently resigned from his position at University College London.