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Stopping Sexual Harassment In The Space Science Community (Update)

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
October 14, 2015
Filed under
Stopping Sexual Harassment In The Space Science Community (Update)

Berkeley astronomer in sexual harassment case to resign, Nature
“Astronomer Geoffrey Marcy is stepping down as a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley, following revelations that a university investigation found he had sexually harassed multiple students between 2001 and 2010. … Marcy has also resigned as principal investigator of the Breakthrough Listen project, a US$100 million initiative announced in July to search for signs of intelligent life in the Universe.”

Famous Berkeley Astronomer Violated Sexual Harassment Policies Over Many Years, BuzzFeed
“A university investigation into astronomer Geoff Marcy, exclusively obtained by BuzzFeed News, has determined that he violated sexual harassment policies at UC Berkeley. Marcy has written a public apology, though he denies some of the investigation’s findings. … “We consider this to be a very serious matter and the university has taken strong action,” the university said in a statement. David Charbonneau, a professor of astronomy at Harvard University, said the matter has broad implications. “Geoff Marcy is undeniably the most prominent exoplanet researcher in the U.S.,” he said, referring to the study of planets beyond our solar system. “The stakes here couldn’t be higher. We are working so hard to have gender parity in this field, and when the most prominent person is a routine harasser, it threatens a major objective nationally.”
Keith’s 12 October note: This behavior is wrong – no matter where it happens, why it happens, or who does it. NASA, NSF et al and the academic community have spent immense amounts of time and effort trying to make the scientific community inclusive and diverse, and insure that it’s activities are conducted free of harassment or discrimination. A lot of positive progress has been made. But when someone of Marcy’s stature does something like this – and the system designed to prevent it fails to bring the behavior to a halt for all these years – all that progress gets set back. I would hope that this sad episode will serve as an impetus to double down on the enforcement of existing policies – and strengthening those policies when they do not work. And as the media reports on this story they need to stop and think about the actual victims and what they are going through – and stop spending so much time talking about how hard this is for Marcy. I posted some comments on this matter on the Buzzfeed website when the editors changed the original title of this article to water down what it was actually about. The got hammered for that and fixed their headline.
Sign the Petition “I support the people who were targets of Geoff Marcy’s inappropriate behavior and those who have spoken publicly about it. I agree that sexual harassment has no place in our community.”
If you comment, please think carefully about doing so. Don’t make this whole problem worse by being a jerk.

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

17 responses to “Stopping Sexual Harassment In The Space Science Community (Update)”

  1. TheBrett says:
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    I wholeheartedly agree, and signed the petition. Three of the four women who filed complaints ended up leaving the field because of him, and lord knows how many careers he’s derailed with this behavior over the years (I highly doubt this started in 2001 – guys like Marcy usually have a history of this that goes back deep, probably to the first time he started teaching undergrads).

    What sickens me is that Berkeley didn’t even punish him other than a stern warning. They didn’t even ban him from interacting with undergrads or serving as an adviser! And his department* wrote a grotesque letter talking about how hard it is for him, and asking others to have room in their hearts for his possible redemption. Unbelievable – I hope they get hit hard by that Title IX lawsuit Berkeley is facing.

    * This is just twitter scuttlebutt, but I’ve heard from multiple people saying Marcy’s not the only one – there’s another 2-3 professors in the Astronomy Department alone who are big-time sexual harassers. It would explain a lot about their reaction to this.

  2. Zafflebif says:
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    What do people think would be the “appropriate” punishment (assuming everything BUT the crotch-grab is true, in which case I think it is actually a crime)? Should it be: no Nobel prize? no job? no contact with students? monetary fine (paid to the students)? I am asking because if we want to see something more than a wrist-slap, then what is that? I also think it would be good if would-be violators could see a real punishment.

    • Anonymous says:
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      Terminating his employment would be a good start.

      Earlier this summer, Dr. Tim Hunt was fired *the day after* his *comments* (technically he resigned, but my understanding is his choices were resign or be fired), but Berkely let this go on for (at least) a decade.

    • Todd Austin says:
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      Some years ago, a faculty member who was in my area was found to be sexually harassing students. It was managed by requiring him o always keep his door open whenever a student was in his office.

      Some years later, he retired and moved off to another U. I have to wonder if anyone there knows about his past behavior.

      The wording on the petition is unfortunate. Sexual harassment is unacceptable, period – regardless of one’s community,

  3. fcrary says:
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    I guess this is where I get to become incredibly unpopular by saying, “What happened to innocent until proven guilty?” These are very serious accusations. If true, Marcy deserves far more than a slap on the wrist and a warning. But I’m not comfortable assuming it’s true based on gut feelings and without more evidence than I’ve seen. This is too serious a matter for that.

    • Daniel Woodard says:
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      Simply establishing the facts can be difficult. Usually the law responds with either a slap on the wrist or a witch hunt. It is a challenge is to force people to make difficult changes in their behavior.

    • FTL Diesel says:
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      The second paragraph of the linked article states that UC Berkeley’s internal investigation found the accusations to be true.

    • Jafafa Hots says:
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      This is not a criminal investigation. This is an issue between employer and employee and co-workers.

    • Todd Austin says:
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      For me, the clinching bit is that the other members of his department very rapidly came out and said he had to go.

      Having lived most of my adult life in academia, I can say confidently that the speed of this declaration would not have been possible if the knowledge of his behavior had been a new thing. Academics are careful and plodding. They check and check again.

      They knew or suspected it for years, I expect. As the people closest to him (professionally) day after day, I would rely on their judgement.

  4. numbers_guy101 says:
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    This reminds me of hearing that at a certain NASA center they get the lawyers all ready and pumped every summer for when the interns arrive. Any given summer you get 10 to 20 complaints from the female interns. I’ve seen a little bit of this – I call it the “vulture” effect, especially as divorced older men you’d think are unsociable and permanently cranky all of a sudden cheer up, get conversational about the weekend, and drop by the female interns desks to say hello, again, and again, and again…

  5. RocketScientist327 says:
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    Evil people need to be removed when they are discovered. It doesn’t matter who they are or the position they are in. All the good he did is just a fraction of the pain and suffering he caused.

    There is simply no excuse for this behavior.

    Fire him. No pension. No benefits. Expel him and make him an example.

  6. Jafafa Hots says:
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    “It was well known that he had intimate relationships with several of his
    female students. But it is not the only aspect where I felt Marcy’s
    ethics were questionable. In 1987, Marcy’s colleague in the search for exoplanets realized that he had handed her a revised copy of their joint grant proposal. On the copy Marcy had given her, both their names appeared, his as main investigator and hers, as co-investigator. But Marcy’s official copy, the one he had submitted to the funding agency, bore only his name.

    She reported this to the department head, who fired her on the spot. Marcy was the rising star of his department. She then filed a formal complaint for professional misconduct against Marcy. But she was unable to recover her position and she left the field of astronomy.”

    http://paulinegagnon3.wix.c

  7. Hug Doug ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ says:
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    This morning, there was a nice bit on NPR about this story.