Physics Professor and 'Proud Homophobe' Gets Owned by Washington Univ. Freshman

[TexasTowelie]

In his role as physics professor at Washington University, Dr. Jonathan Katz labors to explain universe through the study of its parts in motion. But when he's not in the classroom or in the laboratory, Katz's life is governed by far more worldly (and unscientific) beliefs.

Those beliefs include such statements as "the diversity movement is racist to its core" and declaring that he is "a homophobe, and proud." Both lines are found in essays on Katz's personal website, and over the years the professor's noxious views have created headaches for his employer — which can't fire him because of tenure rules — and outrage among students.

Now he's at it again. But this time, Katz's views have been rejected in a satisfyingly public fashion — with the prof getting owned by a first-year undergrad, no less, in the pages of the student newspaper.

Katz's latest tantrum involves the status of women in Washington University physics department. To Katz, a tenured professor since 1976, the fact that his department includes exactly zero women with tenure or tenure-track professorships is hardly a cause for concern, and certainly not a reflection of intentional discrimination. Instead, as he wrote in an April 3 op-ed published in the student newspaper Student Life, Katz suggests that the absence of women in physics is simply unexplainable and should be accepted as a basic fact of nature.

Read more: http://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2017/04/20/physics-professor-and-proud-homophobe-gets-owned-by-wash-u-freshman