NEWS OF TH E WEEK
CONFLICT: Change at top comes after faculty opposed talks of merger with USC CRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE President and
S DAVID FREEMAN/SCRIPPS
CEO Michael A. Marletta has resigned from the institute after a heated conflict with the faculty over a proposed merger with the University of Southern California. On June 13, Scripps announced that it had begun talking with USC about a possible alliance that might inject needed funding into the financially shaky institute. Marletta Scripps faculty vigorously opposed the partnership, saying in a June 20 e-mail to Marletta and Scripps Board of Trustees Chair Richard A. Gephardt that such a merger “would destroy much of what has been built.” The Scripps faculty then cast a nearly unanimous formal vote of no confidence
“She was one of those members of the group who really brightened the day when she came in. She had so many plans. She really felt that she wanted to do something good for the world.” —MU-HYUN BAIK, CHEMISTRY PROFESSOR
GRADUATE STUDENT KILLED IN PLANE DISASTER REMEMBRANCE: Indiana University
mourning loss of Karlijn Keijzer
NDIANA UNIVERSITY chemistry graduate student
I
Karlijn Keijzer was among the passengers aboard a Malaysia Airlines jetliner shot down over eastern Ukraine by a surface-toair missile on July 17. The plane was traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. All 298 people aboard were killed. The missile was fired from an area inside Ukraine controlled by Russianbacked separatists, the White House confirmed at a July 22 press briefing. Keijzer, 25, was a fourth-year graduate student who worked in chemistry professor Mu-Hyun Baik’s group. Her research foKeijzer cused on developing a computer program to generate classical force fields to be used in large-scale molecular dynamics simulations, Baik says. Keijzer was from the Netherlands and was spending CEN.ACS.ORG
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in Marletta and called for his resignation. On July 9, Scripps and USC announced they had terminated merger talks (C&EN, July 14, page 6). Marletta, who is a member of C&EN’s advisory board, has led Scripps since January 2012. In a July 22 statement confirming Marletta’s resignation, Gephardt noted that the board “is working with Dr. Marletta on a possible transition plan.” Gephardt added that the board will “work to make any transition to new leadership the highest priority” and “will engage all key constituencies in a dialogue about the future direction of this storied institution.” Scripps chemistry professor Donna G. Blackmond tells C&EN that she and other faculty members “continue to have faith in both the mission and the future of Scripps as an independent research organization, one that holds promise for tremendous advances in the fields of biomedical science.” Blackmond added, “The faculty are committed to working in concert with the board and the administration for the greater good of the institution to make this vision a reality.” Scripps projects a $21 million deficit for the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30. Much of Scripps’s funding comes from the National Institutes of Health, which has experienced increased competition for the grant money it distributes, especially as the agency’s budget has stagnated in recent years.—ELIZABETH WILSON
the summer there working with collaborators at VU University Amsterdam on projects involving simulations of iron chelating agents and antitumor drugs, Baik says. Keijzer took the flight to start a short vacation, says Baik, who became very emotional while talking with C&EN. He called Keijzer’s death “horrible.” “She was one of those members of the group who really brightened the day when she came in,” Baik says. “She was very hardworking. She had so many plans. She really felt that she wanted to do something good for the world.” “It’s a very sad day for the department,” says IU chemistry department chair David P. Giedroc. He adds that the student community is “taking this news pretty hard.” The disaster also killed at least six people headed for the 20th International AIDS Conference, which was held July 20–25 in Melbourne, Australia. One of them was Joep Lange, a professor of medicine at the University of Amsterdam’s Academic Medical Center and former president of the International AIDS Society. The disaster victims’ remains are being transported from Ukraine to the Netherlands for identification. The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution on July 21 calling for an international investigation into the incident.— IND IANA U
SCRIPPS LEADER MARLETTA RESIGNS
JYLLIAN KEMSLEY
JULY 28, 2014
