Paleonet: Letter for Paleonet

[Jere H. Lipps]

Clearly, if this is true, Spanish science is in 
deep trouble.  Alternative hypotheses and testing 
is what science is, and scholarly freedom to do 
that is essential.    This cannot bode well for 
science there or for the people involved.  It is 
often the sign of an immature or insecure 
science.  However, that too is a hypothesis based 
on one side, and sometimes there's another 
side.   I'd not want to condemn my Spanish colleagues without knowing more.

The general topic of suppression of alternative 
views is worth talking about on PaleoNet because 
it happens a lot, even in my country.  Here it's 
based on egos trying to win, more than anything 
else.  Kind of a result of the human condition 
and without which science would not advance 
much.  That's why we all need to be on guard all 
the time for this kind of thing.

At 03:39 PM 12/6/2007, you wrote:
>Paul Palmquist has asked me to post the following to the list.
>
>Norm MacLeod
>
>-----------
>
>Dear colleagues,
>
>Several postings in Paleonet during the last weeks dealt on the uncertain
>future of paleontology as a scientific discipline, given the loss of
>academic positions and research funding. In the past, I have heard
>reproaches from other Spanish scientists who think that we the
>paleontologists are always in conflict (this would ultimately result from
>the low number of Spanish paleontologists, which translates in that
>everybody knows of all other colleagues, and this seems to lead some of us
>to consider them as potential competitors). On this matter, I think that
>paleonetters should know what has happened to one of our colleagues, Dr.
>Manuel Mendoza, during his work in an institution recently created in Spain,
>the Catalan Institute of Paleontology, directed by Dr. Salvador Moyà Solà.
>Manuel collaborates with me in the ecomorphology and palaeoecology of
>ungulates, the subject of his PhD thesis dissertation in 2002, after which
>he was awarded with a Fulbright Grant at Brown University. All other
>scientists who have collaborated with Manuel also consider the treatment
>that he has received in this institution as unfair. These include, for
>example, Dr. Miquel De Renzi (Professor of Paleontology), Dr. Miguel Ángel
>Medina (Associate Professor of Biochemistry), Dr. Carlos Criado (Associate
>Professor of Theoretical Physics), Dr. Raimundo Real (Associate Professor of
>Animal Biology) and Dr. Carlos Cotta (Associate Professor of Languages and
>Computation Sciences). In the following letter, written by Manuel, you can
>find the details.
>
>Best wishes,
>
>Paul Palmqvist
>
>_______________________________________________
>
>Dr. Paul Palmqvist, Profesor Titular
>Depto. Ecología & Geología (Área de Paleontología)
>Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga
>Campus Universitario de Teatinos, 29071 Málaga (Spain)
>Phone: +34 952 132002 (office), +34 952 212870 (home)
>Shared Fax: +34 952 132000, E-mail: ppb at uma.es
>Web page: http://webpersonal.uma.es/de/ppb/index.html
>_______________________________________________
>
>
>Dear colleagues,
>
>On May 1, 2007 I was contracted in the Catalan Institute of Paleontology
>(ICP) as staff scientist by his Director, Dr. Salvador Moyà Solà, for a
>period of three years, joining the research group headed by Dr. Meike
>Köhler, his wife, to work on evolution of life history (a matter in which I
>had little experience at that moment) and continue my work on theoretical
>evolution and ecomorphology. After a period of seven months, I have
>contributed to the scientific production of the ICP with a paper published
>in a journal included in SCI records (other two are currently in review), an
>article in a book edited by Dr. Norman MacLeod, and four communications
>presented to workshops held in three different countries. The goal of this
>letter is to report that I have been dismissed now from the ICP for
>defending some results of a research which apparently are in conflict with
>the personal expectancies of Dr. Moyà Solà and, specially, of Dr. Köhler.
>The latter has a close collaboration with Dr. Lloyd Demetrius, Professor at
>Harvard University and member of the Max Plank Institute. Dr. Demetrius
>suggested me to implement a computer model with which his Directionality
>Theory had been confirmed (Kowald and Demetrius, 2005: Proc. R. Soc. B 272).
>After the examination of the model, I realized that it has serious errors.
>Once implemented, in collaboration with Dr. Carlos Cotta ­ an expert in
>evolutionary computation - we confirmed the scope of these failures. This
>conclusion, as well as the development of a new alternative model, were
>initially received with pleasure by Dr. Köhler. However, according to the
>reaction of Dr. Köhler and Dr. Moyà Solà when she came back from a visit to
>Harvard, Dr. Demetrius was in disagreement with our results. Dr. Moyà Solà
>accused me then of putting in danger the collaboration with this important
>scientist. He argued that ³how could I put in doubt the knowledge of an
>expert who has been working during decades in the matter, if you had no idea
>about demography four months ago?". Obviously, this is a new version of the
>old Principle of Authority, which is incompatible with the nature of science
>and its method, something that should not happen at the beginning of the
>21st century. Dr. Moyà Solà ordered me to follow the instructions of Dr.
>Köhler and, when I tried to defend myself and explain my position, he
>rescinded my contract with the ICP. Officially, I have been dismissed for
>organizational reasons, and others with an even more difficult justification
>have been argued, including my lack of integration in the research group
>headed by Dr. Köhler (she is now the only member of this team). I want to
>express that it is not coherent or humane to contract me for three years, to
>encourage me for moving from a distant city with all my family (I have two
>children in school age, my wife had to left her job, etc.) and now, seven
>months later, to be fired out for organizational reasons. Moreover, this is
>not an isolated fact. Only two months ago, Victor Fernandez Tascón, who came
>also from a distant city, was contracted for three years to perform a PhD
>thesis under the direction of Dr. Köhler. Shortly after, he was pressed to
>leave the ICP without apparent reasons, since I can testify to his capacity
>and dedication. It is worth noting that Victor and I were, up to that date,
>the only collaborators of Dr. Köhler in the ICP.
>
>Manuel Mendoza
>
>***********************************************
>
>Dear colleagues:
>In regard to the incidents lived by Dr Manuel Mendoza during his stay in the
>Catalan Institute of Paleontology (ICP), I want to confirm some of the
>points that he exposed, of which I have been an indirect witness, because
>these incidents were put in my knowledge while they were taking place,
>before the dismissal of Dr Mendoza. For approximately four months Dr Mendoza
>and I have been collaborating in models of Life History based on the work of
>Dr Demetrius and collaborators. During this time we arrived to some
>conclusions about the algorithmic model of Kowald and Demetrius that make it
>unrealistic. Following these observations, Dr Mendoza explained to me, in
>different conversations, a series of problems that he was having in the ICP
>as a consequence of these conclusions, being even afraid of loosing his job,
>after having being scold by Dr Moyà for contradicting to a renowned
>investigator of the area (Dr Demetrius), seemingly compromising the
>collaboration of him with the ICP. Sadly these dreads were demonstrated to
>be founded. It is lamentable that, in these moments in which the science
>community is so concerned about scientific excellence, not only the
>scientific career of a young scientist is interrupted so unfairly but also
>he and his family suffer this personal damage.
>Carlos Cotta
>
>*********************************************************************
>Dr. Carlos Cotta
>Dept. Lenguajes y CC.CC.
>University of Malaga Email: ccottap at lcc.uma.es
>ETSI Informatica (3.2.49)
>Campus de Teatinos, 29071 - Malaga - SPAIN
>*********************************************************************
>
>
>___________________________________________________________________
>
>Prof. Norman MacLeod
>Keeper of Palaeontology
>The Natural History Museum
>Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD
>
>
>(0)207 942-5204/5295 (Office)
>(0)207 942-5546 (Fax)
>http://www.nhm.ac.uk//research-curation/staff-directory/
>palaeontology/cv-5463.html (Web Page)
>
>___________________________________________________________________
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Paleonet mailing list
>Paleonet at nhm.ac.uk
>http://mailman.nhm.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/paleonet
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