Sir
In your News story “Max Planck plans double blow to chemistry” (Nature 422, 105; 200310.1038/422105a), you state that two departments at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz are the “first casualties of a budget freeze” at the Max Planck Society. This is not correct.
The closure of one department was decided years ago and has nothing to do with the present budget constraints of the Max Planck Society. The federal consolidation programme, aimed at reducing staff numbers in former West German institutes, has obliged the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry to cut 25 staff positions. This includes eliminating Professor Günter Lugmair's position when he retires in 2005.
The institute's further development has to be seen within the context of the overall development of the Max Planck Society. Within this context, the institute is free to set its own scientific priorities, which include the continued use of the ion microprobe pictured in your story.
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Our reporter contacted the Max Planck Society's press office as well as the heads of departments at the Institute of Chemistry in Mainz. None of these told him that the closure of the cosmochemistry department had been decided several years ago — Editor, Nature
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Wirsing, B. Max Planck: cuts were decided years ago. Nature 422, 469 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/422469b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/422469b
