Hey , think of thatdickwad astronomer who was find shamed of sexually harassing a bunch of women over the course of a decadeat Berkeley beforeresigning in shame last week ? It ’s worsened than we see . Geoff Marcy ’s record of bad behavior apparently trails all the way back to his job at San Francisco State University , where he was a prof for 15 years before heading to Berkeley in 1999 .
Since BuzzFeedfirst broke the newsthat large exoplanet investigator Geoff Marcy had beenfound hangdog of violating his university ’s sexual torment policies for at least a decade , other women from Marcy ’s yesteryear have descend forward to confirm the story . Today , BuzzFeedreportsthree new allegations brought against Marcy that date back as early on as 1995 , when he was still at SF State . This serviceman was a serial harrier , and he got away with it for at least twenty years .
“ He would stroke my arm or my neck opening while going over data , standing very near , ” Borland secernate BuzzFeed News . He would also play with her fuzz or clash up against her with his legs , she said , “ often leave in his crotch touching me . ”

Because Marcy was a vocal booster of adult female in skill , “ it was contradictory in my head that he could have defective purpose , ” Borland say . “ But at the same time , it just feel so uncomfortable that after a few time I had to narrate him to stop . ”
What ’s most infuriate about the young disclosure — aside from the obvious one of Marcy hurting even more women — is the restate figure of dismissal on the part of universities . SF State did n’t have an prescribed sexual harassment insurance policy until 1995 , and when two dupe approached the school ’s freshly minted intimate molestation policeman about Marcy ’s behavior , what did the up - and - come uranologist get ? A ginger blab .
It is n’t clean from the BuzzFeed report why secure corrective action were n’t follow , but here ’s one likely possible action : 1995 was the very same year that Marcy ’s field of exoplanet scientific discipline started to take off , with the landmark discovery of 51 Pegasi b , the first exoplanet spotted revolve a sun - like mavin . Geoff Marcy ’s deep involvement in the other days of exoplanet discovery clearly pegged him as a rising star . Allegations of inappropriate touching from a handful of female grad scholarly person had to have been rather inconvenient .

lamentably , we saw this have it off - up power dynamic work to Marcy ’s party favour once again at Berkeley , where the only thing to lead from a formal university investigation — an investigating that found the mankind guilty of violating intimate molestation policies for many class , mind you — was a admonition . This sentence around , Marcy was n’t just a rising star : he was widely debate to be in the running for the Nobel Prize .
Thanks to independent coverage , Berkeley ’s investigation was made public , and thousands in and beyond the uranology residential district have since rallied in backing of his victims . Aletter publish by the astronomy facultyat Berkeley expect Marcy to step down ; another letter of the alphabet to the same effect was authored by astronomy grad students and post - physician . With few other choice , Marcy has finally resigned , stepping away from the astronomy community that he parasitized for decades .
This case should serve as a chilling reminder of the consequences of tolerate intimate harassment to get swept under the carpet . No matter how esteemed and well-thought-of Marcy may have been within his flying field , no matter how many NSF grant he brought to his university , nothing can untie the damage this piece has inflicted on woman in his community and those who entrust uranology as a result of his behavior . That ’s permanent .

[ BuzzFeed ]
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