Astronomy Field Reeling After Sexual Harassment Scandal

The news that famous astronomer Geoff Marcy sexually harassed students over many years has sent shock waves through his field.On Wednesday, Marcy’s employer, the University of California, Berkeley, confirmed that he had resigned from his position, after BuzzFeed News reported that he had violated the school’s sexual harassment policies in several cases between 2001 and 2010.Marcy is leaving behind a storied career and public persona, not to mention nearly $900,000 in federal grants, $100 million in a private research effort to find “civilizations beyond Earth,” and two graduate students.Marcy studied exoplanets, the planets that orbit stars outside of our own system. More than 1,000 have been discovered in the past few years, and a few could, just maybe, harbor life. Once considered fringe, the exoplanet field is now frequently touted as a contender for a Nobel prize. And Marcy was a leading figure in that transformation.One of Marcy’s former collaborators, Gregory Laughlin of the University of California, Santa Cruz, told BuzzFeed News that he was devastated by the news — and especially concerned about the young women Marcy harassed.“It’s something that really, really shakes everybody to the core,” Laughlin said. “It’s the matter of the greatest urgency to make the right choices going forward and not just cover up what’s happened.”Read more at...BuzzFeed News, October 2015.