Physicist who claimed 'physics was invented by men' suspended by Cern with immediate effect

‘He stood up in front of a room of early career women and delivered a manifesto on why women didn’t belong in physics’

(Getty)

A physicist who came under fire for claiming that physics was “invented and built by men” while giving a talk at a European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) workshop in Geneva has been suspended from the organisation with immediate effect.

Professor Alessandro Strumia, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics, had allegedly asked Cern if he could deliver a talk on his most recent bibliometrics paper.

He then proceeded to present a talk about “fundamental theory and gender”, where he spoke about how female physicists such as Marie Curie were welcomed into the physics world only once they had established themselves.

Professor Strumia used a slideshow to illustrate the “discrimination” that men have faced, with examples including female Stem students receiving free or cheaper university fees in Italy.

He also explained how he believed that he should have been hired by the National Institute of Nuclear Physics over Anna Ceresole, the professor who was eventually chosen for the position that he’d applied for, as he had more citations than her.

Professor Strumia's talk has received a huge backlash on social media, with many describing his presentation as "sexist".

Mara Reed, a student at the University of California, Berkeley, explained on Facebook that the aim of the Cern workshop was to highlight gender issues in physics.

"Alessandro Strumia, a big shot within the Cern research community asked (he was not invited) to give a talk about his recent bibliometrics paper," she wrote.

“Instead, he stood up in front of a room of early career women and delivered a manifesto on why women didn’t belong in physics.

“Strumia believes that physics was ‘invented and built by men,’ that women were of course welcome if they proved themselves and picked up a Nobel.”

Dr Jess Wade, a research associate in the Department of Physics at Imperial College, gave a talk at the Cern workshop about gender equality in physics.

After Dr Wade gave her talk, Professor Strumia allegedly made a comment about how undergraduate students in the UK are facing large debts due to the amount of money that institutions spend on equality and diversity training.

"The room full of (mainly) early career women physicists were obviously not happy to hear they are only going to get anywhere in a career in physics due to tokenism," Dr Wade tells The Independent.

"My concern is that behaviour like Strumia's largely goes unchecked in academic science, and he has influence on appointment committees as well as impacting the opinions of the people he teachers and supervises."

In 2015, a study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that girls often lack confidence when pursuing high-paid careers in science and technology, even when they perform better academically than boys at school.

In 2017, it was reported that under a quarter of people working in core Stem industries were women, with nearly 22,000 more women working as science and engineering technicians than in 2016.

Some of the most prominent physicists throughout history include Marie Curie, who won two Nobel Prizes and coined the term 'radioactivity'; Chien-Shiung Wu, who became the first female instructor in Princeton's physics department; Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who co-discovered the first radio pulsars; and Lise Meitner, who worked on nuclear physics and radioactivity.

After issuing an initial statement condemning Professor Strumia's presentation, Cern has now announced that he has been suspended from the organisation with immediate effect.

Cern has also removed the slideshow that Professor Strumia presented from its website following the negative reaction that his talk received online.

However, the slideshow has continued to circulate on social media since being shared on Google Drive.

"On Monday, 1 October, Cern suspended the scientist from any activity at Cern with immediate effect, pending investigation into last week’s event," the updated Cern statement reads.

"Cern is a culturally diverse organisation bringing together people of many different nationalities.

"It is a place where everyone is welcome, and all have the same opportunities, regardless of ethnicity, beliefs, gender or sexual orientation.

"Indeed, diversity is one of the core values underpinning our Code of Conduct and the Organization is fully committed to promoting diversity and equality at all levels."

When asked by The Independent to comment on the statements made in his presentation about physics being “invented and built by men”, Professor Strumia stated that “historically”, physics had started “four centuries ago” with women starting to contribute “after around 1900”.

He also said that both men and women need to prove themselves in physics, as “nobody is invited".