Controversy Surrounding Debye Continues

I mentioned earlier of a report that appears to exonerate Dutch physicist and Nobel Laureate Peter Debye of being a sympathizer of the Nazi during World War II. Unfortunately, that did not satisfactorily end the controversy. In the 25 January 2008 issue of Science, two different universities in the Netherlands took opposite views to the report. Utrecht University restored Debye's name to the Debye Institute for NanoMaterials Science. However, Maastricht University in Debye's hometown rejected the conclusion of the report and removed Debye's name from a scientific award permanently.

The whole debacle here could probably summed up with this:

To Mark Walker, a historian at Union College in Schenectady, New York, who specializes in science in the Nazi era, that is an unsatisfactory ending. "I think the whole affair is unfair to Debye's memory," he says. "He acted according to his standards. They weren't the standards of a hero, but they weren't that bad."

Zz.