Professor Hans Thybo

From The Executive Secretary Academia Europaea#

To all members of the Academia Europaea:#

Signatures on a petition in support of Professor Thybo MAE#

Dear Colleague,

I wish to draw to your attention a deeply worrying case that affects directly one of our members and that in more general terms, should be of great concern to all our individual members as it impinges on academic freedoms.

The Board of trustees make no recommendations with regard to this petition. Any action readers wish to take must be for individual conscience to dictate.

So:

Thank you if you already has signed. Otherwise, we ask you to please consider to support the freedom of science by signing the following petition:

"Rector Ralf Hemmingsen, University of Copenhagen

Professor Hans Thybo has been fired by the University of Copenhagen. The reasons given are his advice to a postdoc to answer a university questionnaire honestly and as a subsidiary reason, his use of his private email for work-related issues. The undersigned do not accept these as adequate grounds for dismissal and urge the university authorities either to state the real reasons (if they exist) or to reinstate Professor Thybo”.

Follow this link to sign: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/sacking-scientist-University-of-Copenhagen

A prominent scientist at the University of Copenhagen, Professor Hans Thybo, has recently been sacked due to accusations that can only be considered inferior in relation to the sanction. It has even been demonstrated that these accusations by management are false.

Hans Thybo is currently President of The European Geosciences Union, incoming President of the International Lithosphere Program, and Vicepresident of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. He is a member of the Academia Europaea and a highly respected scientist who is known also for his high ethical standards. On this background it appears that the real reason for sacking Hans Thybo may well be that the management at University of Copenhagen dislike successful employees who maintain high ethical standards in their sciences to a degree that these prominent scientists will be dismissed.

You may read more in two recent articles in Nature edition and at the University Post from University of Copenhagen:

http://www.nature.com/news/sacking-of-prominent-geoscientist-rocks-community-1.21095 http://www.nature.com/news/corporate-culture-spreads-to-scandinavian-institutes-1.21147

http://universitypost.dk/article/international-support-fired-professor-hans-thybo http://universitypost.dk/article/ucph-wasted-half-million-consultants-investigate-thybo-misuse-research-funds http://universitypost.dk/article/postdoc-thybo-did-not-put-pressure-me

Thanking you for your considerations.

Introductory statement to the petition by colleagues from the University of Copenhagen:

"We, the undersigned members of the Danish academic community hereby encourage colleagues to support a protest against the dismissal of a highly esteemed professor at the University of Copenhagen. With short notice, professor Hans Thybo, geologist and geophysicist, has been dismissed from his professorship, been removed from The University of Copenhagen, and denied access to his office. The official arguments for the dismissal are weak and can hardly be considered to be the actual reasons: he has advised a younger colleague on the completion of a questionnaire concerning the working environment at his institute, and he has used his private e-mail address in matters concerning his job as a scientist.

The dismissal is not only a violation of the rights of professor Thybo, but also a serious threat which may jeopardize academic freedom, and the need for innovative thinking irrespective of what the institutional leadership wants. If the dismissal is not retracted, it may create anxiety in academic circles at the University of Copenhagen and elsewhere. We therefore urge colleagues in Denmark and abroad to support this protest by signing the following petition, addressed to the management of the University of Copenhagen.

Prof Frans Gregersen, prof emer. Lene Koch, prof Niels Kærgaard, prof Bente Klarlund Pedersen, prof Ditlev Tamm, prof Ole Wæver, all University of Copenhagen"