What Happens When Biotech Buys a University?

The Sad Saga of Ignacio Chapela

academic freedom in chains

by John Ross

Feb 18, 2004

 

How to destroy Mexican corn, reap maximum profits, and buy a university in one easy lesson...

Seated on the balcony of his appropriately professorial office upon a sun-stroked hillock in the midst of the Life Science complex on the hallowed Berkeley campus of the University of California, the controversial Mexican-born microbiologist Ignacio Chapela, an academic who has dared to lock horns with the potentates of Big Biotech, reflected upon the tenuous status of his employment. "They will never forgive me here," the curly-haired, Cupid-mouthed Chapela sighed disconsolately, his gaze fixed upon the Campanile, the Berkeley campus's most recognizable landmark, as if it were a stand-in for Chancellor Robert Berdahl himself.

For story go to this link:  http://theava.com/04/0218-chapela.html