The Veneto Institute of Molecular Medicine in Padua, Italy, has revoked its nomination of cancer researcher Pier Paolo Pandolfi as scientific director following allegations of sexual harassment and scientific misconduct against him.
Pandolfi, who admits one instance of harassment but denies any research wrongdoing, was nominated as the scientific director for the Veneto Institute (VIMM) on May 20. The move prompted protests by members of the institution’s scientific advisory board, who subsequently resigned en masse when the nomination was confirmed on June 25, with members saying they had not been properly consulted, Nature reports.
“There should have been more investigation before making the appointment,” board member Aaron Ciechanover, a biochemist and Nobel Prize winner based at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, tells Nature.
The sexual harassment allegations that Pandolfi admits to concern a Harvard postdoc, who tells Nature that Pandolfi organized “too many one-to-one meetings where he talked about ...
