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Elite US science academy expels astronomer Geoff Marcy following harassment complaints

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2021-05-27 23:30:03

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Geoffrey Marcy resigned in 2015 from the University of California, Berkeley, which conducted an investigation finding him guilty of sexual harassment. Credit: Nikas Halle'n/AFP via Getty

The US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has terminated astronomer Geoffrey Marcy’s membership, in light of sexual harassment complaints — the first time the respected group has expelled a member.

The action comes two years after the NAS introduced a new code of conduct that would allow the organization to expel members “for the most egregious violations ... including for proven cases of sexual harassment”.

The 158-year-old academy changed its bylaws following pressure from the scientific community and after the #MeToo movement, which highlighted pervasive workplace harassment and institutional failures to prevent it. In 2018, a US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report warned that sexual harassment is widespread in academic science.

Marcy, an exoplanet researcher, resigned from his tenured position at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2015, after BuzzFeed News reported that a university investigation found he broke sexual harassment policies in several cases for nearly a decade until 2010.