The groups also started a petition which had gathered over 300 signatures by Thursday afternoon.
News that Sabatini may be hired by NYU was first reported on science.org, which also reports that Sabatini has been forced out of or fired from three leading institutions for sexual harassment or for violating workplace or consensual sexual relationship policies. Among the claims Sabatini made in the lawsuit filed in October was that the investigation Whitehead conducted was a"sham" and was flawed.
The woman also alleged in the suit that Sabatini created a work environment where to get ahead and gain his approval, undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows were to “indulge a highly sexualized lab environment." Lawyers for Whitehead and Lehmann claimed, in a court filing, that Sabatini's lawsuit was a"direct attack" on what was then a pending investigation at MIT.