ROADBLOCK

Ex Salk Institute President Discouraged Professor From Gender-Discrimination Suit

Email shows Nobel winner Elizabeth Blackburn warned suit could damage female prof’s career.

The former president of the prestigious Salk Institute tried to squash a gender-discrimination lawsuit by one of her professors, warning in a private email that it might harm the researcher’s career. Elizabeth Blackburn, a Nobel laureate, sent the email to biochemist Beverly Emerson in June 2017. “Families have disagreements. But they don’t litigate their disagreements,” Blackburn told Emerson in the email, adding that a lawsuit would be “ill-advised” and might damage her career prospects. Emerson and two colleagues claimed Salk had systemically discriminated against them on salary, benefits, promotions, and access to private donations. In her email, Blackburn wrote: “What feels good right now, based, perhaps, on complex emotions, may not prove—on a career-long road—the most prudent tactic.” The lawyer representing Salk, Steve Strauss, said: “It is disappointing that [Emerson’s] counsel has chosen to disclose what we maintain is a privileged communication, over our objections and before the matter could be decided by the court, particularly because Dr. Blackburn’s message was a sincere effort to reach out to Dr. Emerson and avoid litigation.” Blackburn shared the 2009 Nobel Prize for Medicine for her research on telomeres.