Row as scientist tells women: We men invented physics

A MALE scientist who said ‘physics was invented and built by men, it’s not by invitation’ has been suspended by a prestigious nuclear research centre.

Professor Alessandro Strumia was called a bigot by critics after his ‘highly offensive’ presentation about women in physics.

The physicist, from Pisa University in Italy, was hosting a workshop at Cern, the nuclear centre in Geneva, last Friday as a guest scientist when he made the controversial comments. He claimed that one graph he presented demonstrated that women were hired over men whose work was cited more by other researchers, which is an indication of high quality.

He told the audience, which included young female physicists, that he himself had been rejected for a job he believed he was more qualified for, in favour of a woman. Cern – which currently has its first ever female director-general, Fabiola Gianotti – said it had immediately suspended Professor Strumia from returning to the centre, pending an investigation.

It described his comments as offensive’ and ‘unacceptable’.

Planetary scientist Mara Reed, from Berkeley University in California, who attended the talk, said: ‘He argues that too much money is spent on funding diversity ‘ highly and therefore discrimination against men. Strumia thinks he is brave to point out the “truth”. Well, he’s not brave. He’s a bigot.’

Professor Strumia stood by his comments, which he said were based on objective data analysis and research by other scientists.

He said: ‘Some people don’t want to hear things that disagree with their ideology. We found in my work that there is no discrimination against women. The goal of science is to find the truth, not to find what is nice.’