A professor at the University of Oxford, U.K., who rejected an Israeli graduate student because of that country's treatment of Palestinians has been suspended for 2 months without pay. The suspension is the harshest penalty Oxford can impose short of dismissal.
Andrew Wilkie, a developmental geneticist who was appointed Nuffield Professor of Pathology in October 2002, wrote Tel Aviv University student Amit Duvshani that he had a "huge problem" with the Israeli government's treatment of the Palestinians and therefore would not consider anyone who had served in the Israeli army for a position in his lab. Duvshani had listed his compulsory 3 years of national service on his résumé.
Wilkie, who apologized this summer for "the wholly inappropriate expression of my personal opinions" in his e-mail to Duvshani, has resigned as a Fellow of Pembroke College and will also be required to undergo equal opportunity training. A university statement said Wilkie "fully accepts the gravity of the situation."
"I'm happy the issue has been investigated," Duvshani told Science. "I'm not out to get Professor Wilkie personally." He says he is considering graduate schools in the United States.
