Tim Hunt, Nobel Prize winner, apologizes for comments about women in labs

Tim Hunt, a joint recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine, said he was trying to be humorous when he told a conference in South Korea about his experience working alongside females in science: "You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticize them, they cry."

Mixed-gender research environments 'very disruptive to the science,' British biochemist says

The Associated Press · Posted: Jun 10, 2015 9:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: June 10, 2015

British scientist Tim Hunt — seen here in 2001, the same year he won the Nobel Prize — has apologized for comments he made about his 'trouble' with females in science laboratories. (Alastair Grant/Associated Press)

A Nobel Prize-winning British scientist apologized Wednesday for saying the "trouble with girls" working in laboratories is that it leads to romantic entanglements and harms science.

But Tim Hunt stood by his assertion that mixed-gender labs are "disruptive."

Hunt, 72, made the comments at the World Conference of Science Journalists in South Korea, according to audience members.

Connie St Louis of London's City University tweeted that Hunt said when women work alongside men in labs, "you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticize them, they cry."

Hunt, a biochemist who was a joint recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine, said he was just trying to be humourous. He told BBC Radio on Wednesday that he was "really, really sorry I caused any offence."

Then he added: "I did mean the part about having trouble with girls ... I have fallen in love with people in the lab and people in the lab have fallen in love with me and it's very disruptive to the science."

Can't do any science today because - like all women - I'm too busy making <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TimHunt?src=hash">#TimHunt</a> fall in love with me and crying <a href="http://t.co/IsLDELoHRL">http://t.co/IsLDELoHRL</a>
—@asek47

I can't even get angry with Tim Hunt's sexist comments. They are just the sound of a million dinosaurs dying out.
—@WorksWithWords

Tim Hunt's comments on women in science are a perfect example of how someone can be both brilliant and thick as mince at the same time
—@MathewJLyons

'No excuse' for comments

Jennifer Rohn, a cell biologist at University College London, said the comments may have been meant as a joke "but that's no excuse."

She said such comments from a leading scientist "are going to be taken to heart by some young female scientists. And I think that is a real shame because we still have a very long way to go to get equality in the sciences."

Hunt is a fellow of the Royal Society, one of Britain's most eminent science bodies, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2006.

The Royal Society said it did not share Hunt's views. It said in a statement that "too many talented individuals do not fulfil their scientific potential because of issues such as gender and the society is committed to helping to put this right."

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