Allegations of sexual misconduct against a high‑profile public intellectual during a 2016 Melbourne conference

° At least two CFI staffers were sufficiently concerned about reports of your behavior that they urged CFI’s president not to invite you on a 2014 cruise of the Galapagos Islands. You were invited on that cruise, however. Incident 6: ° During a visit to Melbourne, Australia, in November 2016, you were accused of sexual misconduct once again. ° The incident happened at a dinner held at the Melbourne Zoo as part of the Australian Skeptics National Convention, where you were a featured speaker. ° With conference delegates chatting over drinks, a woman asked you for a celebrity selfie. ° As the woman held out her phone to take the picture, you reached over her shoulder and grabbed her right breast. ° She immediately reacted, bodychecking you and spinning around. “Don’t do that,” she said. ° BuzzFeed News has seen the complaint made by another woman to ASU, ANU, and the New College of the Humanities in London, including the selfie, her face obscured to conceal her identity. It shows your hand in motion as a blur in front of her shoulder, apparently moving toward her chest. Two other eyewitnesses have confirmed the complainant’s account of what happened. ° In April 2017, the complainant described the incident on her blog. After hearing more about your reputation for inappropriate behavior from blog readers, she decided to file a complaint about the Nov. 2016 incident. ° On July 16, she filed formal complaints with Arizona State University, and with the Australian National University in Canberra and the New College of the Humanities in London, where you have visiting appointments. ° Both Arizona State and the Australian National University told her they would look into the matter. But neither university found against you. ° “Based on the material available to the University, we do not have sufficient evidence to substantiate the allegations,” Kiaran Kirk, dean of the College of Science at the Australian National University, wrote to her. ° Erin Ellison, who heads Arizona State’s Office of Equity & Inclusion, wrote to her explaining that an inquiry “did not find a violation of university policy.” ° In October, Arizona State denied a request from BuzzFeed News for documents relating to complaints of sexual harassment against you. However, Cynthia Jewett, the university’s senior associate general counsel, noted that two individuals, neither affiliated with the university, had complained about you. “The University did not find either communication to state a credible allegation,” Jewett wrote. Miscellaneous facts: ° In 2008, you founded the Origins Project at Arizona State University in Tempe, a multidisciplinary effort to understand the origins of the universe, life, and social systems. You have led that effort ever since. e Thanks to best-selling books like The Physics of Star Trek and A Universe From Nothing, frequent essays in publications including the New Yorker and the New York Times, and the documentary you made with biologist Richard Dawkins, called The Unbelievers, you are celebrated as one of America’s leading public intellectuals. ° You served on the science policy committee for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and are a vocal critic of President Donald Trump. ° You also make regular public appearances across the world, often at gatherings of skeptics and atheists. ° At CSICon in Las Vegas in October, a few dozen fans paid $500 per head to attend a VIP luncheon with you and Dawkins. ° Many more lined up to get you to sign their copy of your latest book, The Greatest Story Ever Told — So Far. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021431