Anger at Univ of Penn for claiming 2023 Nobel prize winner as their own: they demoted her

[Demovictory9]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/10/03/researcher-demoted-by-university-of-pennsylvania-wins-nobel-prize-for-mrna-discoveries-and-some-academics-urge-penn-to-apologize/

Researcher Demoted By University Of Pennsylvania Wins Nobel Prize For mRNA Discoveries—And Some Academics Urge Penn To Apologize

Katalin Karikó won this year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine alongside Drew Weissman for their research that led to the development of mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, but a post from the University of Pennsylvania—where Karikó was demoted from tenure track in 1995—claiming her as a Penn researcher angered the medical community.

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Karikó was hired by the University of Pennsylvania in 1989 as an adjunct professor and researcher, where she met and began collaborating with Weissman, a professor of medicine at Penn, in 1997.
Poor
Though initially on track to become a tenured professor, the university reportedly offered Karikó a choice to either leave or be demoted with a pay cut in 1995—which she said was “particularly horrible” because she had just been diagnosed with cancer and her husband was stuck in Hungary because of a visa issue—because her mRNA research was deemed too risky and did not attract enough grant funding.



Karikó took the demotion and continued her work, but later left her senior research investigator position at Penn (where she retains an adjunct professorship) in 2013 to serve as vice president at BioNTech—co-manufacturer of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine—because Penn refused to reinstate her to a tenure track position, reportedly considering her research “not of faculty quality.”

Penn congratulated Karikó and Weissman for their Nobel Prize win on Monday in an X post, calling them “Penn’s historic mRNA vaccine research team” and attaching a university news release (which does not acknowledge Karikó’s tense history with Penn)—but a community note applied to the post calls the wording “misleading” because she left the university as a researcher a decade ago.

[Recycle_Guru]

1. same institution that granted diploma to the orange anus and musk rat

[question everything]

2. And it has the patent and has earned millions from them.

[Sky Jewels]

6. Enraging!

😡🤬😤

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. This was a major blunder

[WhiteTara]

16. by a bunch of men

[LittleGirl]

4. This is exactly how women in a University environment

are treated. I am not surprised in the least.

[SunSeeker]

5. Yup. Old college boys club, uses women and underpays them.

So fucked up. But this is particularly egregious, taking credit for her research after shafting her and forcing her to leave.

[brer cat]

10. Exactly!

[uponit7771]

8. +1

[PCIntern]

7. As a former Penn faculty member

I am not surprised in the slightest

[DFW]

9. As a Penn grad

Nor am I, unfortunately.

While contemplating an individual major, I was told by a sneering history professor in charge of such things, "we are not running a school for tour guides."

So, a bargain was struck. I took a major in which I already knew 90% of the material (leaving me time to pursue my interests), and then when I made good use of my "tour guide" skills, never gave them a cent when it came to their asking for alumni donations. My parents never asked for any financial aid, so my conscience is clear there.

[Happy Hoosier]

11. A LOT of Ivy League schools are elitist bullshit factories when it comes to faculty.

It's a club. And they wanna make sure only the "right" people get in to it.

Faculty politics is always a little shitty, at any University.

In the Ivy League, it's an absolute nightmare.

[Kid Berwyn]

12. Sadly Shambolic

Universities have filled their academic staffs with non-tenure track, adjunct and part-time positions to save money. For some reason, public relations likely, I thought Penn was different.

[struggle4progress]

13. ... In 1995, UPenn gave her an ultimatum: abandon her research or face a demotion

and a pay cut. The university was reportedly dissatisfied with Kariko's inability to generate adequate funding for her research. During the time, many scientists were turning away from mRNA research, leading her UPenn bosses to consider mRNA "impractical", according to a report by Wired UK. During this time, Kariko was also battling cancer and her husband had become stranded in Hungary following visa issues ... Kariko stated that UPenn compelled her to retire due to her relentless pursuit of mRNA vaccine research ... Karikó's departure from UPenn in 2013 marked a turning point. She embraced an opportunity at BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals as the Vice President ... UPenn had refused to reinstate her, stating that she was not "faculty quality". When Kariko told them about her departure, she claimed they laughed and said, "BioNTech doesn't even have a website" ...

https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/why-upenn-demoted-katalin-kariko-for-research-that-won-her-the-nobel-prize-123100300595_1.html

[struggle4progress]

14. ... Kariko left a prophetic message on the last day at her former job ... As her boss

came to bid her farewell ... Kariko issued a prescient admonition for the future of the lab, “In the future, this lab will be a museum. Don’t touch it," she said.

She had her retaliation when she ran across her old boss in 2021, by which time Kariko's studies had given her a household name in the medical community.

Kariko's former supervisor informed her that he was planning to give a lecture on her ... The focus of the presentation, he claimed, would be on Kariko's contribution to one of the greatest "scientific and humanitarian achievements" of our time, and how he missed it and let Kariko walk away.

“If you know about 10 years ago, I was here in October because I was kicked out from UPenn, was forced to retire,” she said ...

https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/trends/story/this-is-so-inspiring-netizens-on-nobel-prize-winner-katalin-karikos-words-while-leaving-her-job-at-upenn-400506-2023-10-03

[MagickMuffin]

15. With bragging rights comes more $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

It doesn’t matter to them that they forced Katalin Karikó out. Once a member always a member, amirite!


I suppose Katalink’s landlord could take credit that she lived in their house.

Or

The bank that keeps her money safe could boost and take credit Katalin banks with them.

Or

. . . . . . . . .

[MissB]

17. Kudos to the Nobel prize winners

I hope she finds the vindication of her life’s work incredibly satisfying.

[RobinA]

18. Here in Philadelphia

this was very much touted as a Penn collaborative effort without any word otherwise. For no reason other than a turn of my mind, it crossed my brain to wonder if there were more to the story. Purely random. But then, there is always more to the story, isn't there?

[NNadir]

19. She had another connection to Philadelphia.

She did a postdoc at Temple University.

[andym]

20. Peer review is to blame because it favors what is fashionable at the moment

No grants, no real faculty position. However, peer review is also necessary to ensure that work is scientifically sound. It's the placement aspect of peer review that is problematic-- her earlier work was published but not be the top journals, and those who evaluate funding base those decisions in part on what is hot at the moment.

[struggle4progress]

21. She has a Penn webpage listing her as Adjunct Professor of Neurosurgery and

a Penn Medicine Researcher