The chair of the biochemistry and molecular biology department at the University of New Hampshire has been banned from campus and is facing criminal charges after a violent outburst last month.
John Collins - chair of the department for two years -- was charged with disorderly conduct and had a restraining order issued against him on June 29 after allegedly making threatening remarks about Stacia Sower, dean of research.
On June 28, Collins received a parking ticket for leaving his car in the loading zone of the building for more than 30 minutes. According to the police report (as read to The Scientist by Sower's attorney, Stuart Dedopoulos), Collins entered the building shouting angry comments about Sower and insinuating that she had called the police about the parking violation.
According to witness statements in the police report, Collins took the elevator to the third floor, where he kicked a trash can and continued to shout threatening comments about Sower, such as "I hate her" and "She makes me so mad," also saying that he was going to kill her. Collins never spoke to Sower directly that day or approached her office, according to Dedopoulos.
Sower sought a restraining order against Collins. He is also being charged with disorderly conduct and stalking (which under New Hampshire law includes making threatening comments about someone even if they are not present). Collins denies the specifics of what was said, but acknowledges that he raised his voice, Paul McEachern, Collins' attorney told The Scientist.
The university is also launching its own investigation, Erika Mantz, university spokesperson told The Scientist. She could not anticipate how long the investigation will run or what effect this will have on Collins' career.
But the incident does not reflect major philosophical rifts within the biology department, as was suggested by local coverage of the incident, said Depopoulos.
Earlier, he told the AP that there was "a lot of conflict within the department philosophically," which may have triggered the incident. Other coverage in The Portsmouth Herald suggested that the incident was not related to deeper philosophical problems in the department.
However, Dedopoulos told The Scientist that he meant to suggest that the two had "history" between them. "I don't think this incident can be explained by any philosophical differences," he said, and whatever intellectual disagreements Collins and Sower may have had, they had nothing to do with this incident.
Debates over how research should be carried out aren't more or less severe than at any other institution, Kevin Culligan, research assistant professor in the department, told The Scientist. In terms of scientific philosophy, this department is "no different from any other department at any other university," he said.
"It's gotten blown out of proportion," Culligan added, referring to how the incident has been treated by the media.
The dispute hasn't affected other people working in the department, Rick Cote, professor in the department, told The Scientist. But the "situation is miserable" for Collins, Thomas Laue, professor in the department, told The Scientist. Both declined to say whether the incident was triggered by philosophical disputes in the department. The six other faculty members in the department did not respond to phone calls requesting comment. Two people who have collaborated with Collins, but are not based at the University of New Hampshire, said they had worked with Collins in the past but did not know about the situation in the molecular biology department. Three others did not reply to calls or e-mails for comment.
Sower has called the police to the department in two other occasions in the past. In April of this year, Andrew Laudano, associate professor in the department, told The Scientist Sower called the police when she saw Laudano walking around the building at 5:30 in the morning. Laudano had parked in the loading zone to take food for his research students up to his lab but realized his keycard did not work on that side of the building. He had to walk around the building to get in, and when he came back to his car the police were waiting for him. Sower remarked in that police report that she was suspicious of Laudano and thought he might do something to her laboratory or students.
In 2002, Laudano added, Sower called the police because she suspected that someone was tampering with the freezer in her lab. Authorities came to question both Laudano and Collins. The freezer was locked under a combination lock in a laboratory to which only Sower had keys. Inspection of the freezer showed that it had spontaneously malfunctioned. Sower did not respond to calls or emails for comment.
"There is a history of her being extremely suspicious when in fact there is no reason for her to be concerned," Laudano said.
Sower's lab studies lampreys as a model for hormone and receptor evolution in the vertebrate brain. In particular, her research has elucidated the action of many hormones, in addition to other proteins that regulate the release of hormones such as growth hormone and melanocyte-stimulating hormone. Three of her papers have been cited more than 20 times.
Collins' lab studies gene signaling and gene expression that controls development in C. elegans. In particular, he has worked on the Src gene, a key regulator of tumor growth in breast and colon tissue. In 2002, Collins and Nobel Laureate Craig Mello showed that knocking out Src in C. elegans embryos led to cell death -a lethal mutation. Src knockout mice have not shown a severe phenotype, suggesting that Src functions differently in different systems.
In 2003, Collins and colleagues identified a novel Src gene in C. elegans through a whole-genome analysis, and found that the gene family in C. elegans is phylogenetically similar to Src in Drosophila. Both papers have been cited more than 30 times.
Collins did not respond to an e-mail request for comment.
"John has been a very valuable colleague over the years," said Laudano, who has collaborated with Collins on the Src research. "Anyone who asks for his help gets it. It's unfortunate he's in a position that he can't even step foot on university soil."
A hearing for witness testimony is set for August 3.
Andrea Gawrylewski
mail@the-scientist.com
Links within this article:
John Collins
http://biochemistry.unh.edu/Faculty/Collins/index.html
Stacia Sower
http://www.unh.edu/biochemistry/sower/index.html
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http://biochemistry.unh.edu/Faculty/culligan/index.html
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