l*****7
发帖数: 8463 | 1 这个大学是生意：个别领导赚钱，其他人靠卖奶
‘This is not a university anymore but a business, with a very few, up in
the hierarchy, profiteering, and the rest of us milked for money.’
http://www.mitbbs.com/article_t/Biology/31928203.html
发信人: foxn4 (狐狸和舫), 信区: Biology
标 题: 经费不达标,迫于领导压力英国帝国理工肿瘤学教授自杀
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Fri Dec 5 18:06:42 2014, 美东)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2861588/Professor-dead-
Professor found dead after cash row: Cancer scientist said to have told
fellow academics that chiefs treated him 'like s***'
Professor Stefan Grimm killed himself after confiding in fellow
academics
The toxicology scientist, 52, had been researching 'anti-cancer gene'
Imperial College bosses had told him he was not attracting enough grants
The institution is consistently ranked among the best in the world
A scientist pioneering a new cancer treatment at world-renowned Imperial
College London has been found dead after bosses told him to raise more money.
Professor Stefan Grimm apparently gassed himself at home after confiding in
fellow academics that university chiefs had treated him ‘like s***’.
In a final email, he wrote: ‘What these guys don’t know is that they
destroy lives. Well, they certainly destroyed mine.
‘This is not a university anymore but a business, with a very few, up in
the hierarchy, profiteering, and the rest of us milked for money.’
The 52-year-old professor of toxicology, who had been researching an ‘anti-
cancer gene’, was discovered dead in his house after his bosses told him he
was not bringing in enough money from academic grants.
An
email sent by Martin Wilkins, head of experimental medicine, to Prof Grimm
earlier this year stated he was ‘struggling’ to meet expectations and
needed to win research grants worth ￡200,000 a year.
He wrote: ‘This constitutes the start of informal action in relation to
your performance,’ and offered to ‘help’ if Prof Grimm wished to ‘
explore opportunities elsewhere’.
Prof Grimm sent an email to colleagues entitled ‘How Professors are treated
at Imperial College’ claiming that he had been living under the threat of
the sack for more than a year.
In the email, only discovered since his death on September 25, he wrote: ‘
Why does a Professor have to be treated like that? These career scientists
up in the hierarchy of this organisation only look at figures to judge their
colleagues.’
Saying he had accomplished ‘something exciting’ in the field of anti-
cancer genes, he wrote: ‘We have developed something that is probably much
more exciting than most other projects, including those that are heavily
supported by grants.
‘One of my colleagues here at the College whom I told my story looked at me
, there was a silence, and then said: “Yes, they treat us like s***”.’
Prof Grimm was unmarried and lived alone in a rented house in Harrow, North-
West London, where his next-door neighbour Norma Harrington, 84, said: ‘He
was very friendly, polite, gentle and diffident.
‘He went off to work at 7.30am and came home at 10pm – he said he was
always working.’
‘I noticed he had lost weight recently.
‘It is so sad that someone doing such good work should end up like this.’
Her husband, retired bank worker Jack Harrington, showed the Mail a note
from their neighbour apologising over a delay in paying for cleaning of
their joint driveway in which Prof Grimm wrote: ‘Sorry for my slow response
, it is a bit stressful in my job at the moment.’
Last night a fellow academic at Imperial said: ‘Perhaps what is most
shocking is that none of us are actually shocked this has happened.
‘Higher education is like big business these days, and Imperial is
absolutely focused on its position in the global rankings.
‘Lots of us thought academia was about ideas and expanding the realms of
science, not a business in which the people who do the research are treated
as disposable commodities.
‘Guys like Prof Grimm are victims in this. It is brutal and horrible and
unfair. Everybody knows a story about someone who has been targeted because
they no longer “fit” or are deemed unproductive in some way.’
Writing about Prof Grimm, science blogger Prof David Colquhoun said the
problem ‘is by no means limited to Imperial’ and said several other top
universities were ‘just as brutal - but in these places nobody has died.
Not yet’.
Professor Dermot Kelleher, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial, told
staff in an email: ‘We are all deeply saddened by Stefan’s death and my
thoughts are with all those who knew him.’
He said an obituary being prepared told of ‘a scientific life well lived, a
phenomenally hard worker, a leader and inspiration to other scientists and
a caring man dedicated to his students.’
An inquest was opened and adjourned at West London District Coroner’s Court
on October 8.
Yesterday a spokesman for Imperial College London disputed Prof Grimm's
claim he had been threatened with the sack, and said the matter had been at
an informal stage, adding: 'His line manager met with him on a number of
occasions to see how the College could help him to develop more competitive
grant applications.
'Discussions included talking about the best place for him to do his science
, both inside Imperial and outside, and it is a fact that, with Professor
Grimm’s permission, his line manager made enquiries about opportunities on
his behalf.
'Stefan Grimm was a valued member of the Faculty of Medicine and news of his
death came as a great shock to colleagues.'
The university is conducting its own review to see if there were any '
lessons to be drawn'.
Professor James Stirling, Provost of Imperial College London, said: '
Imperial seeks to give every member of its community the opportunity to
excel and to create a supportive environment in which their careers may
flourish. Where we become aware that the College is falling short of this
standard of support to its members, we will act.'
Statement on Professor Stefan Grimm
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/n
Members of Imperial's community may be aware of media reports of the tragic
loss of Stefan Grimm, professor of toxicology in the Faculty of Medicine.
Professor Grimm’s work identified genes and proteins that regulate the
survival of cells, and may in the future help improve our understanding of
cancer. He was a valued member of the Faculty of Medicine, highly respected
by colleagues and students.
The news of Professor Grimm’s death at the end of September came as a great
shock to the College community. Senior colleagues have offered their
deepest condolences to Stefan’s family on behalf of the College, and extend
those to everyone affected by this tragedy.
The statutory authorities are investigating Professor Grimm’s death and the
College will continue to provide all the assistance it can.
Contrary to claims appearing on the internet, Professor Grimm’s work was
not under formal review nor had he been given any notice of dismissal. It is
standard practice at Imperial to conduct both informal and formal
performance management. Professor Grimm’s line manager met with him on a
number of occasions to see how the College could help him to develop more
competitive grant applications, for example through internal peer-review,
collaborations and letters of support. Discussions included talking about
the best place for him to do his science, both inside Imperial and outside,
and, with Professor Grimm’s permission, his line manager made enquiries
about opportunities on his behalf.
As with all serious and tragic events involving staff or students, the
College conducts appropriate reviews in order to see whether wider lessons
may be drawn. Last month, following Professor Grimm’s death, Imperial’s
Provost tasked the Director of HR and one of the College’s senior elected
academic representatives to review relevant College policies, procedures and
the support available to staff. Their report will be considered by a senior
group led by the Provost and the College will move swiftly to implement any
recommendations.
Members of the community will be informed of the outcomes of the review in
early 2015, and comments will be invited on the College’s proposed response
.
Professor James Stirling CBE FRS, Provost of Imperial College London, said:
“Imperial seeks to give every member of its community the opportunity to
excel and to create a supportive environment in which their careers may
flourish. Where we become aware that the College is falling short of this
standard of support to its members, we will act.”
Staff and students are reminded of the resources available to them offering
support with personal or work issues – please see details in the sidebar (
right).
http://www.dcscience.net/2007/08/03/how-should-universities-be-
Dear Colleagues,
You may have already heard about the tragic death of Professor Stefan Grimm
a former member of the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College. He died
suddenly and unexpectedly in early October. As yet there is no report about
the cause of his death. Some two weeks later a delayed email from him was
received by many of the senior staff of the medical school, and other
researchers worldwide. It has been forwarded to me by one of my research
collaborators. From my reading of it I believe that Stefan wanted it
circulated as widely as possible and for that reason I am sending it to you.
It is appended below.
This email represents just one side of an acrimonious dispute, but it may be
indicative of more deep seated problems.
best wishes
Begin forwarded message:
From: Stefan Grimm <[email protected]
/* */>
Date: 21 October 2014 23:41:03 BST
To:
Subject: How Professors are treated at Imperial College
Dear all,
If anyone is interested how Professors are treated at Imperial College: Here
is my story.
On May 30th ’13 my boss, Prof Martin Wilkins, came into my office together
with his PA and ask me what grants I had. After I enumerated them I was told
that this was not enough and that I had to leave the College within one
year – “max” as he said. He made it clear that he was acting on behalf of
Prof Gavin Screaton, the then head of the Department of Medicine, and told
me that I would have a meeting with him soon to be sacked. Without any
further comment he left my office. It was only then that I realized that he
did not even have the courtesy to close the door of my office when he
delivered this message. When I turned around the corner I saw a student who
seems to have overheard the conversation looking at me in utter horror.
Prof Wilkins had nothing better to do than immediately inform my colleagues
in the Section that he had just sacked me.
Why does a Professor have to be treated like that?
All my grant writing stopped afterwards, as I was waiting for the meeting to
get sacked by Prof Screaton. This meeting, however, never took place.
In March ’14 I then received the ultimatum email below. 200,000 pounds
research income every year is required. Very interesting. I was never
informed about this before and cannot remember that this is part of my
contract with the College. Especially interesting is the fact that the
required 200,000.- pounds could potentially also be covered by smaller
grants but in my case a programme grant was expected.
Our 135,000.- pounds from the University of Dammam? Doesn’t count. I have
to say that it was a lovely situation to submit grant applications for your
own survival with such a deadline. We all know what a lottery grant
applications are.
There was talk that the Department had accepted to be in dept for some time
and would compensate this through more teaching. So I thought that I would
survive. But the email below indicates otherwise. I got this after the
student for whom I “have plans” received the official admission to the
College as a PhD student. He waited so long to work in our group and I will
never be able to tell him that this should now not happen. What these guys
don’t know is that they destroy lives. Well, they certainly destroyed mine.
The reality is that these career scientists up in the hierarchy of this
organization only look at figures to judge their colleagues, be it impact
factors or grant income. After all, how can you convince your Department
head that you are working on something exciting if he not even attends the
regular Departmental seminars? The aim is only to keep up the finances of
their Departments for their own career advancement.
These formidable leaders are playing an interesting game: They hire
scientists from other countries to submit the work that they did abroad
under completely different conditions for the Research Assessment that is
supposed to gauge the performance of British universities. Afterwards they
leave them alone to either perform with grants or being kicked out. Even if
your work is submitted to this Research Assessment and brings in money for
the university, you are targeted if your grant income is deemed insufficient
. Those submitted to the research assessment hence support those colleagues
who are unproductive but have grants. Grant income is all that counts here,
not scientific output.
We had four papers with original data this year so far, in Cell Death and
Differentiation, Oncogene, Journal of Cell Science and, as I informed Prof
Wilkins this week, one accepted with the EMBO Journal. I was also the editor
of a book and wrote two reviews. Doesn’t count.
This leads to a interesting spin to the old saying “publish or perish”.
Here it is “publish and perish”.
Did I regret coming to this place? I enormously enjoyed interacting with my
science colleagues here, but like many of them, I fell into the trap of
confusing the reputation of science here with the present reality. This is
not a university anymore but a business with very few up in the hierarchy,
like our formidable duo, profiteering and the rest of us are milked for
money, be it professors for their grant income or students who pay 100.-
pounds just to extend their write-up status.
If anyone believes that I feel what my excellent coworkers and I have
accomplished here over the years is inferior to other work, is wrong. With
our apoptosis genes and the concept of Anticancer Genes we have developed
something that is probably much more exciting than most other projects,
including those that are heavily supported by grants.
Was I perhaps too lazy? My boss smugly told me that I was actually the one
professor on the whole campus who had submitted the highest number of grant
applications. Well, they were probably simply not good enough.
I am by far not the only one who is targeted by those formidable guys. These
colleagues only keep quiet out of shame about their situation. Which is
wrong. As we all know hitting the sweet spot in bioscience is simply a
matter of luck, both for grant applications and publications.
Why does a Professor have to be treated like that?
One of my colleagues here at the College whom I told my story looked at me,
there was a silence, and then said: “Yes, they treat us like sh*t”.
Best regards,
Stefan Grimm |
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