Wade Hemsworth, a spokesman for McMaster, told CBC Hamilton Jonathan Pruitt resigned on Sunday. Pruitt, who did not respond to questions from CBC, joined the McMaster faculty in July 2018 after leaving the University of California, Santa Barbara. The evolutionary ecologist, who McMaster once described as an “internationally recognized” academic, had received one of the coveted Canada 150 Research Chair positions. His research focused on the “collective characteristics of different animal societies” – including ants, wasps and spiders – and how these characteristics affect their survival. Pruitt was placed on paid administrative leave in November 2021 following a series of concerns raised inside and outside of McMaster University. Federal funding agencies also suspended payments related to the research chair role. “The allegations of misconduct related to external complaints about an investigation conducted by Pruitt between 2011 and 2015,” Hemsworth said this week. “Although Pruitt did not join McMaster until 2018 and the allegations involved work at other institutions prior to his arrival, McMaster instituted an investigation under the Research Integrity Policy.” The Hamilton Spectator previously reported some scientific journals and academic colleagues raised issues with some of its data, which led to academic articles being retracted. Hemsworth said the committee investigating Pruitt is still ongoing and includes an ongoing hearing. He said “it would not be appropriate to comment further until the process has been formally completed”. He did not say what prompted the official resignation this week, such as whether the university reached an agreement or settlement with Pruitt, saying only that any agreement reached would be confidential.
McMaster probe doesn’t go far enough: ex-colleague
Nicholas DiRienzo was one of the academics who worked with Pruitt and later saw their research retracted. He previously said he and other academics found issues related to Pruitt’s use of data, and that he spent a stressful time spending “hundreds of hours exploring data, writing reports, working with editors,” in an effort to do what we could to fix the file on documents in which we were directly involved and access to data’. He said in a telephone interview Tuesday that it’s a “good thing” Pruitt resigned. He also said McMaster’s research doesn’t go far enough and the university should be more open about its findings. “This is really problematic, there are quite a few of my colleagues who are still having their reputations damaged,” he said, referring to the lack of transparency. “I am disappointed that there is not a clear, more defined report from an independent investigation.”
