I’m sorry, pleads Nobel winner who said female scientists cry
A BRITISH Nobel Prize winner today apologised for saying women should work in female-only labs because they are too distracting.
Pioneering scientist Sir Tim Hunt caused uproar after telling a conference that women colleagues cry when criticised and “fall in love with you”.
Today, the biochemist said his comments were meant to be humorous, but added: “I did mean the part about having trouble with girls.
“It is true that people — I have fallen in love with people in the lab and people in the lab have fallen in love with me — and it’s very disruptive to the sci- “responsibility as a role model and as an ambassador for the profession”.
She added: “If you get up there and say things like that, even in a jokey sort of way, they are going to be taken out of context, they are going to be taken to heart by some young female scientists, and I think that is a real shame because we still have a very long way to go to get equality in the sciences.”
Dr Rohn said she had shared platforms with Sir Tim’s wife, immunology professor Mary Collins: “I’m sure she doesn’t approve of these comments.”
Sir Tim, 72, became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1991. In 2001 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, alongside Lee Hartwell and Paul Nurse, for their discoveries of “key regulators of the cell cycle”.
The Royal Societ y said: “Science needs to make best use of the research capabilities of the entire population. Too many talented individuals do not fulfil their scientific potential because of issues such as gender, and the society is committed to helping put this right.
“Sir Tim Hunt was speaking as an individual and his reported comments in no way reflect the views of the Royal Society.”