US scientist retires as chancellor after racist remarks
NEW YORK (AFP) — A US Nobel Prize-winning scientist, whose controversial remarks on race triggered a firestorm, announced Thursday his retirement as chancellor and board member at a laboratory where he has worked for more than 40 years.
The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory located outside of New York had already suspended 79-year-old researcher James Watson, who said in an interview with The Sunday Times that Africans were not as smart as white people.
Watson told the British weekly he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours -- whereas all the testing says not really."
In the ensuing scandal, the scientist, who dedicated his life to studies of DNA, canceled his British book tour and returned home.
He said now it was time for his to abandon his leadership role in the institution for good.
"This morning I have conveyed to the trustees of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory my desire to retire immediately from my position as its chancellor, as well as from my position on its board, on which I have served for the past 43 years," Watson said in a statement.
"Closer now to 80 than 79, the passing on of my remaining vestiges of leadership is more than overdue," he continued.
Watson noted that the laboratory was now fully dedicated to cancer research and argued that final victory over the deadly disease was now "within our grasp."
"Strong in spirit and intensely focused, I wish to be among those at the victory line," the scientist pointed out.
