Nobel Prize winner resigns over sexism criticisms

fuad lawal

June 11, 2015 11:20 PM

A top British scientist has resigned from his post at University College London after he was accused of sexism for claiming that women were a distraction during laboratory work.

Sir Tim Hunt, 72, the biochemist who won a Nobel Prize in 2001, was as an honorary professor of life sciences at University College London. He made the headlines

He made the remark at the World Conference of Science Journalists on 9 June,” UCL said.

“Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. Three things happen when they are in the lab.

“You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticize them, they cry,” Hunt reportedly said at the conference.”

UCL said Hunt’s resignation was “compatible with our commitment to gender equality,” adding that, it was “the first university in England to admit women students on equal terms to men.”

fuad lawal