A silly comment on his part - a big loss to scientific research. (Said as a former student of Tim's at UCL)
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Colm Donovan
11 years ago
Totally unfair what happened to him.
J
John Alexander
11 years ago
As a male I can easily imagine that my concentration in a lab would suffer from my falling for some attractive woman in the same job. That is not a disparagement of women. On the contrary.
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Anonymous
11 years ago
You would think that educated academics at a major university would know how to deal with clueless tweeting bullies! Namely ignore them! Instead they fire a respectable scientist who has worked all his life towards progress and has helped humanity with groundbreaking discoveries that help all human beings! Extremely disappointed by UCL
I
Imtiaz Haque
11 years ago
What he said was undoubtedly inappropriate, but his punishment was also undoubtedly too harsh.
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Jenny Morris
11 years ago
Inappropriate for institutes of such calibre to have such a knee-jerk reaction to social media.
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Natalie
11 years ago
#ReinstateTimHunt
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Anonymous
11 years ago
Witch-hunt is no effort for gender equality.
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Sophia
11 years ago
He's a geeky scientist who was trying to make a joke. It came out wrong and he sounded like a jerk. Heaven knows I have done the same a number of times due to my social awkwardness. This guy has an amazing track record and it's unfathomable that people would choose to bully this poor man over a little social awkwardness.
Also, I consider my self an uber feminist, and I can absolutely see how his comment was made as a joke. My husband makes jokes about my bad driving due to my asian heritage/gender all the time and I find it quite endearing because I know he doesn't mean those things. (Yes he does it in front of friends and everyone gets a good laugh out of it!) I KNOW some people will find my husband's comments just as bad as Tim's. But is he sexist? I wouldn't put up with him if he was! From my experience, really smart people are too smart to say sexist/racist things out loud unless they're don't mean them and are trying to make a joke.
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B Crouch
11 years ago
If he was a woman who had said the extremely unpleasant comment 'kill all white women' he would of course still be in a job.
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Andy Dixon
11 years ago
Quite obviously, Professor Sir Tim Hunt is not a sexist. That a few ill-judged words can produce such an outcry, causing both him and his wife, Professor Mary Collins, immense harm is indicative of an obsessively politically correct Britain in which a baying mob of uber-feminists and their lackeys dictate what may and may not be uttered in public. These people would have done well in Stalinist Russia until, of course, they suffered a bullet in the back of the neck. The world is full of injustice: each day evil triumphs over good. It is time to combat what should be humankind's real concerns. Andy Dixon, Department of the Humanities, Technical University of Koszalin, Poland.
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Andrea Enlow
11 years ago
So he made a stupid comment. His work in science is more valuable then his obviously awkward social skills. Let him get on with his work.
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Jake Sanford
11 years ago
"mob rules" eh? Ridiculous.
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Ka-Ping Yee
11 years ago
His remarks were stupid. But this is not how academia should work. The overall result is a sad and unnecessary loss for science.
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Neil Hemmings
11 years ago
Some people can't tell the difference between irony and sexism. Humour implants needed.
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Gavin Finlay
11 years ago
Long live Tim Hunt!
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Shannon Wynter
11 years ago
The mans comments were in jest, poor taste but jest. The loss to the scientific community, to mankinds knowledge base is immeasurable. Bring him back.
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neal tabachnick
11 years ago
Its the worthless school aadministrators who should apologize for overreaction or get canned.
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Anonymous
11 years ago
He should be forced to take a sensitivity training but not fired
joke
A silly comment on his part - a big loss to scientific research. (Said as a former student of Tim's at UCL)
Totally unfair what happened to him.
As a male I can easily imagine that my concentration in a lab would suffer from my falling for some attractive woman in the same job. That is not a disparagement of women. On the contrary.
You would think that educated academics at a major university would know how to deal with clueless tweeting bullies! Namely ignore them! Instead they fire a respectable scientist who has worked all his life towards progress and has helped humanity with groundbreaking discoveries that help all human beings! Extremely disappointed by UCL
What he said was undoubtedly inappropriate, but his punishment was also undoubtedly too harsh.
Inappropriate for institutes of such calibre to have such a knee-jerk reaction to social media.
#ReinstateTimHunt
Witch-hunt is no effort for gender equality.
He's a geeky scientist who was trying to make a joke. It came out wrong and he sounded like a jerk. Heaven knows I have done the same a number of times due to my social awkwardness. This guy has an amazing track record and it's unfathomable that people would choose to bully this poor man over a little social awkwardness. Also, I consider my self an uber feminist, and I can absolutely see how his comment was made as a joke. My husband makes jokes about my bad driving due to my asian heritage/gender all the time and I find it quite endearing because I know he doesn't mean those things. (Yes he does it in front of friends and everyone gets a good laugh out of it!) I KNOW some people will find my husband's comments just as bad as Tim's. But is he sexist? I wouldn't put up with him if he was! From my experience, really smart people are too smart to say sexist/racist things out loud unless they're don't mean them and are trying to make a joke.
If he was a woman who had said the extremely unpleasant comment 'kill all white women' he would of course still be in a job.
Quite obviously, Professor Sir Tim Hunt is not a sexist. That a few ill-judged words can produce such an outcry, causing both him and his wife, Professor Mary Collins, immense harm is indicative of an obsessively politically correct Britain in which a baying mob of uber-feminists and their lackeys dictate what may and may not be uttered in public. These people would have done well in Stalinist Russia until, of course, they suffered a bullet in the back of the neck. The world is full of injustice: each day evil triumphs over good. It is time to combat what should be humankind's real concerns. Andy Dixon, Department of the Humanities, Technical University of Koszalin, Poland.
So he made a stupid comment. His work in science is more valuable then his obviously awkward social skills. Let him get on with his work.
"mob rules" eh? Ridiculous.
His remarks were stupid. But this is not how academia should work. The overall result is a sad and unnecessary loss for science.
Some people can't tell the difference between irony and sexism. Humour implants needed.
Long live Tim Hunt!
The mans comments were in jest, poor taste but jest. The loss to the scientific community, to mankinds knowledge base is immeasurable. Bring him back.
Its the worthless school aadministrators who should apologize for overreaction or get canned.
He should be forced to take a sensitivity training but not fired