|
Abstract
|
Lund University in Sweden reorganizes in the face of years of accusations against two professors.
At Lund University in Sweden this week, astronomers moved out of a building that was custom-built to hold telescopes and other artefacts from their 350 years of history, and relocated to a physics building down the road. That's because the astronomy department no longer exists, having been dissolved in the wake of a bullying scandal.
For more than three years, Lund University administrators have struggled to respond to numerous complaints that were filed against two senior astronomy professors. The university ultimately decided to assign the two professors to other departments and to disband the department of astronomy and theoretical physics, subsuming it as a division of the physics department.
Many astronomers at Lund have told Nature that because the university took so long to find a solution, it was nearly impossible to do science at times during the past few years. The turmoil contributed to several prominent astronomers leaving the university. Other leading scientists remain, but the forced reorganization has disrupted their careers and research. "This is an insane situation," says an astronomer who asked to remain anonymous because they are still at the university.
Sven Lidin, the dean of science at Lund University who oversaw the changes, says that he saw no other way forward. "My attempts to resolve the issues within the existing organization were unsuccessful, and, as a last resort, I decided that a reorganization was the only option left," he wrote in an e-mail to Nature.
Language: en |