Dear Colleagues, I do not think it is "highly inappropriate" that a crucial episode in the history of crystallography is described/commmented on in this thread, and I am not sure by whom its removal will be "highly appreciated", other than by Prof. Berger. I do not know any of the protagonists of this episode, except by reputation, and the only thing I would be ready to concede is that maybe the subject was brought up a bit too close to the sad death of Prof. Rich. But if someone is that distinguished, his/her life story will be discussed, for better (mostly) or worse (occasionally).
Emmanuel Dr. Emmanuel Saridakis PhD Biophysics, MSc History and Philsophy of Science Institute of Nanscience and Nanotechnology N.C.S.R. "Demokritos" Athens 15310 Greece ----- Original Message ----- From: "Edward A. Berry" <ber...@upstate.edu> To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK Sent: Saturday, 2 May, 2015 23:30:29 Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Alexander Rich passed away Monday April 27, 2015 On 05/02/2015 12:23 PM, Imre Berger wrote: > Dear Edward - > > Would you be so kind and explain why you went ahead to post that comment > about Alex Rich on CCP4, in a thread which announced the sad news of his > passing away? Yes- I realized after posting it that it was inappropriate. If there is any way to remove a post, I will be glad to do so. In any case an apology is due. As for the explanation, I did not intend it to be in any way derogatory. I have never met Alex Rich, but Prof Sung-Hou Kim was my mentor in crystallography, and I have no doubt that their actions were completely honorable. As explained on the page I linked, it was all a misunderstanding based on poor communications between Kim and Rich, and rapid progress on the part of Kim that Rich was not aware of at the previous meeting. There was no evidence of actual misconduct on the part of Rich or Kim, as grudgingly acknowledged in the final letter from Cambridge. If only I had pointed that out in the email, instead of linking to that first accusatory message, it wouldn't have looked so bad. I had forgotten how inflammatory that first letter was! I was thinking this followed in the lines of Bob Sweet's post, that Rich was a hard-driving man and maybe not afraid of stepping on some peoples toes in order to achieve his goals. I never meant to imply misconduct, although after reading back on my post I can see that interpretation. My sincere apologies to the community and to the memory of professor Rich, Ed Berry > > I have checked your home page and your CV and it is not obvious to me at > all what motivation or stake you could possibly have. > > Besides, knowing both Alex Rich and Aaron Klug and having discussed > with them years ago, I think it is fair to say that only those two are > concerned with the issue, and one of them has - very sadly - just died. > > In any case - in my view it is highly inappropriate indeed that you > placed those comments on CCP4. > > Maybe you could be so kind and remove your contribution from the thread > - it would be greatly appreciated. > > "De mortuis nihil nisi bonum" > > Imre > > -- > > Imre Berger PhD HDR > Professor of Biochemistry > Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator > Coordinator, EC FP7 ComplexINC project > The School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol UK > The European Molecular Biology Laboratory EMBL > imre.ber...@bristol.ac.uk > iber...@embl.fr > >
