Nobel laureate resigns over remarks on the 'trouble with girls' in labs

Sir Tim Hunt, an English biochemist and Nobel laureate, has resigned his position at University College London following an outcry over his call for single-sex labs because the "trouble with girls" is that they cause men to fall in love with them.

The UCL website confirmed that the 72-year-old Hunt had stepped down as honorary professor with its Faculty of Life Services "following comments he made about women in science at the World Conference of Science Journalists" om Tuesday in Seoul.

Hunt, who has acknowledged he had a reputation for being a "chauvinist," came under fire after saying, "Let me tell you about my trouble with girls … three things happen when they are in the lab … You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticize them, they cry."

He also said that while he favored single-sex labs, he added that he didn't want to "stand in the way of women," The Guardian reports.

He had been asked to make some brief remarks to a gathering of about 100 people at the end of a luncheon for senior female scientists, journalists and engineers.

UCL noted in its statement that it was the first university in England to admit female students "on equal terms to men " and said the university "believes that this outcome is compatible with our commitment to gender equality."

On Wednesday, Hunt, who was knighted in 2006, apologized for any offense he caused, telling BBC Radio 4's "Today" program that his remarks were "intended as a lighthearted, ironic comment" but had been "interpreted deadly seriously by my audience."

At the same time, he said he stood by some of the comments.

"I did mean the part about having trouble with girls," Hunt said. "It is true that people — I have fallen in love with people in the lab and people in the lab have fallen in love with me and it's very disruptive to the science because it's terribly important that in a lab people are on a level playing field."

Connie Louis, director of the science journalism program at City University in London, was attending the event and blasted Hunt's remarks in a Twitter posting that said, in part, "Really does this Nobel Laureate think we are still in Victorian Times."

Louis told the BBC that she was in the room at the time and that "(n)obody was laughing, everybody was stony-faced."

Hunt, who is also a member of the Royal Society, shared a 2001 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for discoveries of protein molecules that control the division of cells.