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The UK’s Royal Society will take no disciplinary action against its fellow Elon Musk over complaints about his conduct, arguing that judgments potentially seen as political would do “more harm than good”.
Sir Adrian Smith, president of the national science academy, announced the decision to fellows on Tuesday, telling them the challenges science faced were “much wider than any individual”.
The stance of the society, which convened an extraordinary meeting this month over Musk’s fellowship, will disappoint researchers who say the technology billionaire should be censured or even expelled.
They say that he has spread misinformation, made unjustified attacks on Anthony Fauci, the former top US public health official, and is overseeing big cuts in spending at US research institutions through his Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).
But in an email to fellows, Smith said: “The view of [the society’s trustee] Council is that making judgments on the acceptability of the views and actions of fellows, particularly those that might be regarded as political, could do more harm than good to the society and the cause of science in general.”
“Council believes that disciplinary proceedings should not be initiated on such grounds,” he added in the email, first reported by the Guardian.
The 365-year-old society had been guided by views expressed by members of its more than 1,500-strong fellowship, including at the special meeting this month, Smith said.
“The challenges that science is facing today go much wider than any individual,” he wrote. “[It] was felt by many of those present, as well as others who have expressed their concerns separately, that we should focus our energies in making the principled case for science.”
Paul Nurse, the society’s president-elect, had written to Musk, Smith added, giving no details of the message. The society would “step up advocacy for science and challenge attacks on science and scientists, particularly in the United States”, he added.
US science is in turmoil after President Donald Trump’s administration moved to make big funding cuts to leading research institutions and curb research in areas such as diversity, vaccines and climate change.
Smith said the society would “seek to engage directly with our fellows in the US, who are the ones most directly affected”.
“[They] are best placed to understand exactly what is going on in their fields of expertise and what interventions, if any, on their behalf, would be most effective,” he added.
Musk, chief executive of electric-vehicle maker Tesla and SpaceX, was elected a Royal Society fellow in 2018.
His continued membership has triggered the resignation of two other fellows and criticism from other researchers. The academy’s code of conduct states that fellows must “strive to uphold the reputation of the society” and heed that remarks made in a personal capacity could still affect it.
Geoffrey Hinton, Nobel Prize-winning artificial intelligence pioneer and society fellow, said this month that Musk should be expelled because of the “huge damage he is doing to scientific institutions in the US”.
In response, Musk said only “craven, insecure fools care about awards and memberships”, adding that Hinton’s allegations were “carelessly ignorant, cruel and false”.
