Ecologist from Berkley needs our support!!!

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Nature

Published online: 04 August 2004; | doi:10.1038/430598a

Review of tenure refusal uncovers conflicts of interest

_Rex Dalton_ (http://www.nature.com/news/about/aboutus.html#Dalton)

Ignacio Chapela gets good news on his appeal San Diego - The academic

rights of an ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley, may have been

violated when he was denied tenure last year, according to a report from

the academic senate.

Ignacio Chapela: his appeal over being denied tenure is ongoing.I.

CHAPELAIgnacio Chapela was an outspoken critic of Berkeley's controversial

academic–

industrial partnership with the Swiss agribiotech firm Syngenta, which ended

last year (see right). He was also the lead author of a disputed paper in

Nature in which he asserted that genes from genetically modified crops had

flowed into Mexican maize, and had become scattered throughout the genome (D.

Quist and I. H. Chapela Nature 414, 541–543; 2001). After a storm of

criticism

about the paper, Nature withdrew its support for the article, but the authors

stand by their research.

Against this background, Chapela was denied tenure at Berkeley's College of

Natural Resources in November 2003 (see Nature 426, 591; 2003). He appealed.

The resulting report, issued on 28 June, claims that Jasper Rine, a

geneticist at the university who sat on a key committee reviewing Chapela's

tenure,

had conflicts of interest. It says that Rine had financial dealings with

biotech firms, oversaw the Syngenta agreement and had cited Chapela's Nature

paper as an example of poor science in one of his classes. Both the dean of

Chapela's college and his department chair requested that Rine be taken from

the

committee four times; but Rine did not excuse himself nor did the committee

chair ask him to leave. The report also says there was " unjustifiable " delay

in the tenure-review process.

" I am glad the senate is able to rise to the occasion, " says Chapela, whose

contract has been extended while he appeals. Rine, Berkeley administrators

and senate members would not comment on the report, citing its

confidentiality. Such committee reports are rarely disclosed.

As the senate continues its inquiry, Chapela is hoping for a second tenure

review. He has also filed two claims that may precede a lawsuit. In April, he

accused the university of discrimination, saying that he was denied tenure

because he is Hispanic. Early last month, he claimed he was victimized by the

university for speaking out against the Syngenta deal.

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Story from news@...:

http://news.nature.com//news/2004/040802/430598a.html Subject:

[symphonicHealth] ACTION ALERT: PROFESSOR CANNED FOR RELEASING

PAPER ON

GM CORN CONTAMINATION]

ACTION ALERT: PROFESSOR CANNED FOR RELEASING PAPER ON CORN CONTAMINATION

Date: 12/18/04 6:19:20 PM Mountain Standard Time

From: mgraffis@...

Undisclosed-Recipient:;

Sent from the Internet (Details)

ACTION ALERT: PROFESSOR CANNED FOR RELEASING PAPER ON CORN CONTAMINATION

A well-respected and popular professor at the University of California in

Berkeley has been fired after publishing a scientific paper regarding the

uncontrolled contamination of irreplaceable native Mexican corn varieties

by genetically engineered corn. Dr. Ignacio Chapela, whose corn

contamination article was published in the science journal " Nature, " was

denied his tenure due to pressure from the biotech company Monsanto on

the University (the UC Berkeley tenure review panel had actually voted

almost unanimously to approve his tenure). Professor Chapela has been

told to have his office cleaned out by December 31. Sign a petition to

demand a review of Dr. Chapela's tenure denial. Sign here...

http://www.organicconsumers.org/uc.htm#petition

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