The Royal Society, the UK’s oldest scientific academy, will meet on March 3 to review its guidelines on “public pronouncements and behaviors of Fellows” following an open letter signed by thousands of scientists questioning Elon Musk’s membership in the prestigious institution.
More than 2,700 scientists have signed the letter written by Professor Stephen Curry of Imperial College London, which expresses dismay at the society’s “continued silence and apparent inaction” regarding Musk’s fellowship, awarded in 2018.
“I am at a loss to understand how these actions are consistent with a code of conduct that requires fellows to have ‘due regard for the statement of values developed from time to time by Society’,” wrote Professor Curry, referring to Musk’s “promotion of unfounded conspiracy theories” and behavior on social media.
Several members have already resigned in protest, including Professor Dorothy Bishop, a University of Oxford psychologist, who said she refused to be associated with an institution that called Musk a member, who she said was modeling himself on a “Bond villain.”
“The situation is rendered more serious because Mr Musk now occupies a position within a Trump administration in the USA that has over the past several weeks engaged in an assault on scientific research in the US,” said Curry.
No fellow has been expelled from the Royal Society in more than 150 years, when Rudolf Eric Raspe was removed due to fraud. The Times reported one anonymous fellow saying: “I don’t like what Musk is doing — it’s reprehensible. But I also think he’s an astounding person in terms of what he has contributed to engineering.”
In a letter to fellows, Sir Adrian Smith, president of the Royal Society, recognized concerns regarding the “public pronouncements and behaviours of other fellows.” However, he pointed out that the society faces a challenge in making judgments about the acceptability of colleagues’ views or affiliations, especially when those views could be considered political.
