EDITORS' CORNER
More than four dozen scientists are calling on MIT to review its decision to revoke former biology Professor David Sabatini’s tenure in the wake of his $6 million defamation verdict against a former female colleague who falsely accused the world-renowned cancer researcher of sexual misconduct.
“This request is made considering evidence presented during the civil trial that may not have been available at the time of the original decision, as well as the unanimous jury verdict returned in his favor,” states the Nov. 4 letter, obtained by Boston 25 News and the Boston Globe.
Fifty scientists from 33 institutions signed the letter to campus administrators, the news outlets reported. While most are from “outside Cambridge,” three work at MIT.
They wrote Sabatini’s departure from MIT five years ago “carried a level of unfairness that did not meet basic standards all institutions should afford their faculty.” The letter states the trial “revealed much previously unseen evidence, including communications between MIT and the Whitehead Institute leadership.”
“His loss of tenure at MIT was so damaging to his reputation that he became a pariah,” the letter states. “For the past five years, our field has missed his presentations and insights about the work of others at meetings.”
As The College Fix previously reported, the MIT-based probe found Sabatini guilty of failing to disclose a consensual relationship with Kristin Knouse and concluded he violated school policy by creating a “sexualized undercurrent in the lab.”
Sabatini’s legal team had focused their arguments on the consensual nature of the relationship, citing text messages from Knouse, as well as evidence Knouse had become jealous of another woman and plotted to have Sabatini fired.
“In a rapid downfall, Sabatini went from being a star scientist whose discoveries of protein mTOR in 1994 as a graduate student stirred talks of a Nobel Prize, to being shunned from the field of cell biology over the last five years,” the Globe reported.
MIT did not comment on the letter to Boston 25 News, it reported. Campus officials instead cited the previous situation that Sabatini resigned his tenure after an MIT review recommended it be revoked for violating the consensual relationships policy and exhibiting unprofessional behavior toward lab members.
MORE: Former MIT professor wins $6M in defamation lawsuit over sexual misconduct accusations
