The US National Academy of Science has voted to enable members who violate its code of conduct, including individuals who committed sexual harassment, to be expelled from the organization, ScienceInsider reports.
This vote comes slightly more than a year after sexual harassment allegations were made against Inder Verma, who has since resigned from his position at the Salk Institute and as the editor-in-chief of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. At the time, NAS said it could not expel Verma from the academy, as it had no procedure in place to do so. NAS President Marcia McNutt told BuzzFeed News that the academy membership would have to vote on the matter.
About a month ago, the academy approved an amendment at its annual meeting that would enable the NAS council to "rescind membership for the most egregious violations to a new Code of Conduct," which ws approved late last year.
The wider NAS membership has now also approved that amendment, according to ScienceInsider, with 84 percent voting in favor of the change.
McNutt tells ScienceInsider that she expects a number of requests to expel current members to be made soon.