07.05.2015

Solidarity with Neuroscientist Professor Nikos

More than 2,000 scientists sign motion for solidarity by Professor Peter Thier

Tübingen neuroscientist Professor Nikos Logothetis’ announcement that he will withdraw from primate research has resulted in an outcry of the international scientific community. This decision had been forced by militant animal rights activists. In less than 48 hours more than 2,000 scientists from all over the world signed a motion for solidarity by Professor Peter Thier, Chairman of the Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN) at the University of Tübingen.

“I am very happy with the broad echo from the scientific community”, Thier said on Thursday: “After what has happened in Tübingen, it ought to be clear to every scientist working with animals that they can become the target of animal rights activists.” Nothing less than the future of basic biomedical research was at stake.

Thier’s motion allows that animal rights activists may perceive Professor Logothetis’ decision as a victory. “We, however, are of the clear opinion that it constitutes a substantial loss as well as an alarming development.” Months of massive threats and hostility had driven an internationally es-teemed scientist like Nikos Logothetis into a corner. The motion calls this “a sad demonstration of the damage fundamentalist fury can do to individual scientists and to the science endeavour at large.”
<link http: www.cin.uni-tuebingen.de sign-open-letter.php>www.cin.uni-tuebingen.de/sign-open-letter.php

Among the first signees are scientists of many leading universities and research institutions, including the ETH Zürich, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Leuven, Harvard and Yale, the Sapienza in Rome, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York.

Contact:

Professor Peter Thier
Tübingen University
Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN)
Telefon +49 7071 29-83057
<link>thier[at]uni-tuebingen.de

Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

Public Relations Department

Dr. Karl Guido Rijkhoek

Director

Antje Karbe

Press Officer

Phone +49 7071 29-76789

Fax +49 7071 29-5566

antje.karbe[at]uni-tuebingen.de

<link http: www.uni-tuebingen.de aktuell>www.uni-tuebingen.de/aktuell

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