Tim Hunt, the British biochemist who won a Nobel Prize, has resigned from University College London after major backlash brewed following his sexist remarks about women at a recent conference in South Korea.
“Let me tell you about my trouble with girls,” Hunt said at the Seoul convention of senior
female scientists and science journalists, according to The Daily Beast. “Three things happen when they are in the lab . . . You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them, they cry.”
Additionally, Hunt added, he is in favor of same-sex labs because he does not want to “stand in the way of women."
The 72-year-old won the 2001 Nobel Prize in
physiology or medicine, according to The Guardian.
Hunt apologized Wednesday on “BBC Radio 4’s Today," saying he intended the remark to be a joke and not offensive, The Guardian reported. The scientist, however, admitted he “did mean the part about having trouble with girls.”
UCL threw Hunt under the bus in a letter published on its website Wednesday.
"UCL was the first university in England to admit women students on equal terms to men,” the statement said, adding that the school does not agree with the comments Hunt made.
Connie St. Louis, director of the science journalism program at City University in London, heard the comments at the convention and tweeted, “Really, does this Nobel laureate think we are still in Victorian times?”
Twitter user shared their annoyance with the comments:
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