Fury over Dahlem dismissal

Senior scientists in the United States and Europe are considering whether to resign from the board of the long-established Dahlem Konferenzen in protest over the unceremonious removal of the organization's well regarded program director.Dahlem has organized some 90 international multidisciplinary conferences since 1974. Since 1990, it has been integrated into the Free University Berlin, but board member Norbert Baer, professor of conservation at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, told The Scientist that scientists around the world have become increasingly dissatisfied with Free University administrators. Board members told The Scientist that Free University Berlin's administrative actions have been a major destabilizing force, slowing down publication of manuscripts for recent Dahlem Workshops and undermining the independent scientific integrity of the conferences.In a letter seen by The Scientist, William C. Clark, a professor at Harvard University and member of the National Academy of Sciences, wrote: "If the [Free University] does not come to its senses, I will certainly use my association with the academy to make this travesty of the Dahlem name known to the maximum number of American scientists."Baer and others say the breaking point came last November when Julia Lupp, Dahlem's program director, was removed from Dahlem offices by Free University staff, without first consulting the board.In an E-mail to The Scientist, Baer said: "The shameful treatment of a long-serving senior staff member—marching her out of her office under escort in front of her staff, forcing the surrender of her keys, etc… was an affront to any standard of human decency. But it was also an affront to the [board], which was told that this was a mere personnel matter."Baer and Derek Bickerton, professor emeritus, University of Hawaii, told The Scientist last week that many scientists around the world were following the issue closely. "The Dahlem Scientific Advisory Board objected strongly to this, and after more than 2 months of fruitless negotiations, 12 of them are on the brink of either resigning or, the course I recommended, declaring Dahlem independent of [Free University] Berlin," he said.Baer and Bickerton said that many scientists were reluctant to speak out before a meeting on Tuesday (January 25) to discuss Lupp's dismissal. Free University Berlin administrators, Dahlem advisory board members, and Lupp and her attorney were among those present at the meeting.Before the meeting, Baer told The Scientists that if Lupp was not reinstated to her position, then "all hell breaks loose, meaning you will have many persons willing to speak, release statements [and] announce resignations."After the meeting Baer and others told The Scientist that her dismissal from Dahlem Konferenzen had been upheld.Eörs Szathmáry, head of the Department of Plant Taxonomy and Ecology at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, told The Scientist that he was a strong supporter of Lupp. Szathmáry, who is scheduled to chair a Dahlem workshop in May, said he was in Berlin last week and spoke with many people about the controversy. "Let me tell you, this whole story stinks," he said.Like others, Szathmáry said, he had remained publicly silent ahead of Tuesday. But with Lupp's dismissal upheld, he said he would help fight for her reinstatement. "This is now war," he said. "Now you have to fight." Board members will resign if she is not reinstated, he predicted.Szathmáry, who said he had first-hand reports from participants of the meeting, said that Free University Berlin officials had offered Lupp another position within the university. He said Lupp's old post would be filled by three people.Free University Berlin spokesman Goran Krstin confirmed that Lupp has been offered a new position with Free University Berlin. Krstin said that Lupp had not been dismissed by the university, but also said he could not provide details. "The transfer of Mrs. Lupp to a new position within the Free University Berlin is a personnel matter whose public discussion is forbidden."Krstin said rumors that the university wanted to close Dahlem Konferenzen were not true. "On the contrary, the staff of the Dahlem Konferenzen will be strengthened," he said.Krstin rejected allegations that the university had exerted improper influence in the decisions of the scientific advisory board. "Concerning the independence of the scientific advisory board, nothing has changed and nothing will change in the future," he said. Lupp did not reply to an E-mail request from The Scientist for an interview.

Fury over Dahlem dismissal

Top scientists on the Dahlem Konferenzen board threaten resignation over director's removal

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