David R. Marchant

David R. Marchant is an American glacial geologist and former professor at Boston University. Prior to working at Boston University, Marchant worked at the University of Maine.[1] His approach to glaciology has been described as "stabilism," someone who believes that the East Antarctic Ice Sheet has remained cold and generally stable for the past 15 million years.[2] In 1994, an Antarctic glacier was named after him.[3]

In 2017, a Boston University investigation concluded that he had violated Title IX regulations by sexually harassing several of his female graduate students. In 2018, Marchant Glacier was renamed Matataua Glacier by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, and in 2019, he was fired from Boston University.[4][5][6][7]

Sexual harassment

After receiving tenure at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (at UC San Diego) in July 2016, Jane Willenbring filed a Title IX complaint with Boston University in which she stated that on her 1999 Antarctic expedition with Marchant, he repeatedly pushed her down a steep slope, threw stones at her while she was urinating outside, blew shards of volcanic ash into her eyes, and called her a "slut" and a "whore."[4][6] A second woman stated that he repeatedly called her a "cunt" and a "bitch" and promised to block any NSF research funding for her should she continue her career in academia; she left academia.[6] A third woman, Hillary Tulley, stated that "His taunts, degrading comments about my body, brain, and general inadequacies never ended."[6] Much of Willenbring and Tulley's accounts were corroborated by Adam Lewis, who was on the trips with Willenbring and Tulley, and who stated that [Marchant] "clearly stated that he did not believe women should be field geologists."[6] These events were covered in the PBS NOVA documentary Picture a Scientist.[8]

Several women graduate students who worked with Marchant in 2008 and later did not report having any bad experiences and praised his character.[6] Lewis stated that "the extreme behavior" he saw from Marchant in those early seasons seemed to have changed such that Marchant's "attitude shifted to simply being distrustful" of women.[6][9]

In October 2017, the United States House of Representatives science committee launched an investigation into the allegations, noting that Marchant had received over $5.4 million in awards since the late 1990s from NASA and the National Science Foundation.[10]

In November 2017, Boston University concluded that Marchant had sexually harassed Willenbring, but not others.[11]

Marchant was fired by Boston University in 2019, where he was a faculty member in the Department of Earth & Environment in the College of Arts & Sciences.[12][13] While a five-member BU faculty panel recommended that Marchant be suspended for three years without pay, the university president, Robert A. Brown made the determination to fire Marchant.[13][14]

References
  1. "New Theory on Ice Sheet Catastrophe Is the Direst One Yet" (PDF). The Polar Times. 2 (6): 15. Winter 1995. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  2. "The Sirius Debate". AntarcticGlaciers.org. 2020-06-22. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
  3. Payne, Jade (2018-09-25). "This Antarctic Glacier is Gone, But It's a Good Thing". GlacierHub. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
  4. Medina, Jennifer (2018-09-24). "Sexual Harassment Allegations Wipe a Name Off the Map". The New York Times. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
  5. Culotta, Elizabeth (2018-09-18). "Antarctic glacier gets new name in wake of sexual harassment finding". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
  6. Wadman, Meredith (2017-10-06). "Disturbing allegations of sexual harassment in Antarctica leveled at noted scientist". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2021-03-28. The first complainant, Jane Willenbring, now an associate professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, part of the University of California, San Diego, alleges that Marchant repeatedly shoved her down a steep slope, pelted her with rocks while she was urinating in the field, called her a "slut" and a "whore," and urged her to have sex with his brother, who was also on the trip. The second complainant, Deborah Doe (a pseudonym), who was in Antarctica for two austral summers during this era, reports that Marchant called her a "c--t" and a "bitch" repeatedly. She alleges that he promised to block her access to research funding should she earn a Ph.D. She abandoned her career dreams and left academe. A third woman, Hillary Tulley, a Skokie, Illinois, high school teacher, describes her experience in a supporting letter filed with BU investigators. "His taunts, degrading comments about my body, brain, and general inadequacies never ended," she writes. She claims Marchant tried to exhaust her into leaving Antarctica. "Every day was terrifying," she says in an interview with Science.
  7. "Notice of Final Determinations to Alter and Assign Official Antarctic Geographic Names - 2019-ln363". New Zealand Gazette. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
  8. "'Picture a Scientist' documentary showcases just how hard it is for female scientists to overcome bias". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2023-04-21.
  9. Trahan, Erin (10 June 2020). "Documentary 'Picture A Scientist' Spells Out Collective Cost Of Sexism Within Science". wbur. Archived from the original on 2020-06-19. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  10. "House science committee investigating sexual harassment allegations against Boston University geologist - Lawmakers demand documents from university, federal funding agencies". Science. 2017-10-26.
  11. Wadman, Meredith (2017-11-17). "Boston University concludes geologist sexually harassed student". Science. We have concluded by a preponderance of the evidence that Dr. [David] Marchant engaged in sexual harassment in violation of Boston University's Sexual Harassment Policy … by directing derogatory and sex-based slurs and sexual comments at you during the 1999-2000 field expedition to Antarctica," Kim Randall, the executive director of BU's Equal Opportunity Office, wrote to Willenbring in a 16 November letter obtained by ScienceInsider. "We further conclude that this conduct was sufficiently severe and pervasive so as to create a hostile learning and living environment at the camp." But Randall wrote that university officials "did not find credible evidence to support the remaining allegations regarding Dr. Marchant's behavior.
  12. "Boston University fires geologist found to have harassed women in Antarctica". Science | AAAS. 2019-04-12. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
  13. "BU professor fired amid sexual harassment probe – Boston News, Weather, Sports". WHDH 7News. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
  14. "Letter to Faculty from President Brown". Homepage | Boston University. 2019-04-12. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
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