Europe's nuclear research lab is famous for its groundbreaking research into fundamental particles. Now it's in the spotlight for physicist Alessandro Strumia's claim at a gender lecture that physics was "built by men."
In a statement, CERN said that the Italian physicist from Pisa University had been dropped from all activities at Geneva-based lab "with immediate effect, pending investigation into last week's event."
In a lecture given Friday and entitled "High Energy Theory and Gender," Strumia included a slide that read, "Physics invented and built by men, it's not by invitation."
He also suggested that women take gender studies classes — an interdisciplinary field focused on gender identity and representation — only to later complain about a lack of jobs in the scientific, technological and engineering branches, or so-called STEM fields.
In his presentation, the Italian physicist also implied through various graphics that men face discrimination in the field of physics.
Women have been historically underrepresented in STEM fields and continue to be confronted with discrimination in the scientific world.
CERN described Strumia's statements as "highly offensive" and said "that the presentation, with its attacks on individuals, was unacceptable in any professional context and was contrary to the CERN Code of Conduct."
The nuclear research institute added that it had no prior knowledge of the content of the lecture.
Strumia had delivered the lecture as part of a 3-day workshop at the Geneva lab focusing on developments in high-energy physics, such as string theory and cosmology, and issues of gender equality and equal opportunity. Discussion sessions addressed topics such as how to get more women into PhD and postdoc energy studies and how to change work culture for women and minorities within scientific departments and institutions.
CERN lamented that the controversy raised by Strumia "risks overshadowing the important message and achievements of the event" that included talks by 37 other presenters. It removed the link to Strumia's presentation on its website.
CERN is famous for its giant particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, among other thingsImage: Getty Images/AFP/R. Juillart
The nuclear research center reiterated its own commitment to equal opportunity within an inclusive environment. The organization is currently being led by a female director general for the first time, the Italian particle physicist Fabiola Gianotti. According to statistics on its website, in 2015 women accounted for only 20 percent of CERN's staff members, a rate that has barely changed over the past 10 years.
Strumia's home institution, Pisa University, also announced Monday that after examining his presentation slides, it was proceeding with an investigation on whether Strumia had violated university ethics.
Inspirational women in science
Many women have provided a rich source of inspiration for young scientists - both male and female - down the years. They've made remarkable discoveries, often despite ingrained sexism within their chosen field.
Born in 1815, Ada Lovelace was the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron. A gifted mathematician, she is said to have written instructions for the first computer program in the mid-1800s. She is considered the first person to realize that computers, still not a reality, had potential beyond mere calculation. Lovelace is known chiefly for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed "Analytical Engine."
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A giant in two fields
Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Not only that, she was the first person to win one twice. Born in Warsaw in 1867, she became a naturalized French citizen. Curie shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics - for research on radiation phenomena - with husband Pierre and physicist Henri Becquerel. She won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering radium and polonium.
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Unwinding the double helix
Rosalind Franklin never received a Nobel Prize, although many believe she should have. Biophysicist Franklin was an X-ray crystallographer whose practical work was heavily relied upon by James Watson and Francis Crick in their discovery of the DNA double helix, which won the Nobel prize for medicine. By the time the prize was awarded, Franklin had died of ovarian cancer.
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Insight into insulin
British biochemist Dorothy Hodgkin was a contemporary of Franklin, and the two shared their expertise with one another. Hodgkin developed crystallography techniques to give an insight into the structures of biomolecules and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964, becoming the third woman to do so. Five years after winning, Hodgkin was the first person to decipher the structure of insulin.
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A cellular fountain of youth?
Australian-American Elizabeth Blackburn won the Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine in 2009 for her work on telomeres - the protective tips that lie at the end of our chromosomes. Blackburn co-discovered the enzyme telomerase, which allows telomeres to be replenished. Telomerase allows cells to go on dividing, so it appears to influence aging and could have implications in cancer research.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S.Merrell
Shedding light on chimp life
British primatologist Jane Goodall is considered the world's leading expert on chimpanzees and has spent decades studying the social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. She came up with names for many of the animals, drawing criticism from some who accused her of anthropomorphizing.
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'The lady of the cells'
Born in Italy in 1909, Rita Levi-Montalcini had her career cut short by Benito Mussolini's laws banning Jews from academia. Undeterred, she set up a lab in her bedroom and studied the growth of nerve fibers in chicken embryos. After the war, she worked in St. Louis, where she isolated Nerve Growth Factor from cancer tissues. She shared a 1986 Nobel Prize for that with colleague Stanley Cohen.
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Neutron stars and green men
In 1967, Northern Irish physicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered a signal that pulsed at a regular rate. The signal, detected by radio telescope, was dubbed the "little green man." It turned out not to be alien communication, but a rapidly spinning neutron star - the first "pulsar" to be detected. In 1974, her supervisor jointly won a Nobel Prize for pulsar work. Bell Burnell was not a recipient.
