Comment on Astronomers Are Finally Doing Something About Sexual Harassment

“If it’s unwanted, it’s harassment,” proclaim signs around the American Astronomical Society’s (AAS) 227th conference, held this week in Kissimmee, Florida. The signs and a Tuesday town-hall meeting entitled “Harassment in the Astronomical Sciences” represent a response to a scandal that rocked the field this past fall. In October, Buzzfeed revealed that famed planet-hunter Geoff Marcy had violated Title IX sexual-harassment policies at the University of California, Berkeley, with the accusations against him spanning nine years.