Science - USA (2020-05-22)

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SCIENCE sciencemag.org 22 MAY 2020 • VOL 368 ISSUE 6493 815

CREDITS: (GRAPHIC) N. DESAI/

SCIENCE

; (DATA) CARLOS CASTILLO-CHAVEZ

director of the Simon A. Levin Mathemati-

cal, Computational and Modeling Sciences

Center. He also gave up running two pro-

grams housed there: a graduate program

in applied math and life and social sciences

(AMLSS) and the Mathematical and Theo-

retical Biology Institute (MTBI), a summer

research program for undergraduates. A

majority of MTBI participants and a signifi-

cant fraction of AMLSS students are from

underrepresented groups. Castillo-Chavez

created those programs and ran them with

a rare degree of autonomy.

His resignation from those posts, com-

bined with his absence from ASU’s Tempe

campus since January 2019, have been the

cause of much speculation. “I was shocked

when I heard,” says Ricardo Cordero-Soto,

an associate professor of math at Califor-

nia Baptist University, who trained under

Castillo-Chavez and who is also active in

mentoring minority students. “I thought

only death would retire him.”

ASU OFFICIALS HAVE SAID nothing about

why Castillo-Chavez gave up his positions.

“He’s gone, and he won’t be coming back,”

was ASU President Michael Crow’s terse

comment in a 4 March interview with

The State Press, the university’s student-

run newspaper. “He’s no longer in his his-

torical role.”

But Science and The State Press have

learned Castillo-Chavez was stripped of his

administrative titles only days after ASU of-

ficials resolved a complaint against him by

one of his graduate students. The student,

Maria Martinez, alleged in her April 2019

complaint that Castillo-Chavez maintained

a “hostile work environment,” that he “par-

ticipated in workplace harassment,” and

that he violated federal laws protecting the

rights of persons with disabilities. After a

3-month investigation, ASU officials told

Martinez that Castillo-Chavez had agreed

to immediately “resign from all administra-

tive appointments at ASU” and would also

be retiring.

There was no public announcement, and

ASU officials did not release a report or

even write up their findings. But in inter-

views, many colleagues and former students

have spoken about what they regard as a

dark side to Castillo-Chavez’s passion and

commitment to diversity: namely, an intol-

erance for disagreement and a penchant for

bullying students and associates.

“Carlos is equally good at building

bridges and then burning those bridges,”

says a mathematician who requested

anonymity because of a history of conten-

tious relationships with Castillo-Chavez.

“He can work a room and come out with

five people who are suddenly his best

friends—until something

happens that he doesn’t like.

And then he turns on them.”

“What’s sad is that Car-

los did some good work,”

says mathematician Wayne

Raskind, a former ASU de-

partment chair who left

after repeated clashes with

Castillo-Chavez. “But he was

allowed to go rogue. He even-

tually became completely

full of himself and started to

do some bad things. And the

more he got away with, the

more he did.”

Cordero-Soto credits Cas-

tillo-Chavez for “helping me

realize applied math was

the right path for me [and]

for looking out for under-

represented students.” But

Cordero-Soto says he steered

one promising student away

from ASU because of what he

saw as Castillo-Chavez’s harsh

approach to mentoring grad-

uate students and he believes

“compassion” yields better

results. “I tell my students

that I will be their advocate

and their biggest cheerleader

because I’ve been there my-

self,” says Cordero-Soto, who

is active in the Math Alliance,

a national organization that

promotes the mentoring of

minority students.

The 68-year-old Castillo-

Chavez says he is leaving ASU

for reasons that have noth-

ing to do with the complaint.

“I’m exhausted and tired,” he

says. He shed his administra-

tive duties, he says, because

he was consumed with car-

ing for his mother, who died

in November 2019 after a

long illness. His many off-

campus commitments were

another distraction, he adds.

“I’ve been away from Ari-

zona State for much of the

last 7 or 8 years,” he says. That

period includes a tumultuous

2 years at the helm of a new technical univer-

sity in Ecuador, 1 year of cancer treatment in

Boston, and, most recently, a visiting profes-

sorship at Brown University. “I’ve been try-

ing to handle things from far away, and I’m

burned out.”

He says he had planned to retire in De-

cember 2020 and simply moved up the date.

But he acknowledges he could have done a

better job of addressing the

issues Martinez raised.

“I think her complaint

had some validity,” he says.

“I did not keep track of the

potential seriousness of the

situation. I was responsible

for her [training], and I ac-

cept that responsibility.”

The past year marks a

somber end to an improbable

journey that took Castillo-

Chavez to the pinnacle of

his profession. Born in 1952

to a working-class family

in Mexico City and radical-

ized by the failed 1968 pro-

democracy protests there,

Castillo-Chavez hoped to use

community theater as a vehi-

cle for social activism. But he

pivoted to academia after los-

ing a student acting contest.

Emigrating to the United

States in 1974, he quickly

earned a bachelor’s degree

and started a Ph.D. program

in math at the University of

Wisconsin (UW), Milwau-

kee. However, a dinner con-

versation with his adviser

and other faculty members

nearly derailed his plans.

The professors talked dis-

paragingly about a univer-

sity memo that described

efforts to attract more mi-

nority students, he says,

adding that it was clear to

him they thought a Latino

student wasn’t capable of

making it on their own. “So,

I quit,” he told the Lathisms

podcast in 2018.

After reconsidering, he

resumed graduate school

at UW’s flagship campus

in Madison and earned his

Ph.D. in 1984. A postdoc

at Cornell University led

to a faculty position—and,

eventually, a tenured profes-

sorship—in what was then

the biometrics department.

Hoping to launch others

on a similar path, Castillo-Chavez founded

MTBI in 1996. The 8-week summer pro-

gram combines graduate-level courses with

a group research project that targets a real-

world problem. “What I have done over the

last 20-plus years is to take students from

nonselective schools and show them that

their school of origin is irrelevant,” Castillo-

Chavez told Lathisms.

Asian

Latino African American

Native American White

Students who attended MTBI

Underrepresented minorities

68%

To t a l *

437

MTBI participants who went

to graduate school

Underrepresented minorities

73%

Total*

283

MTBI participants who have

earned Ph.D.s

Underrepresented minorities

74%

Total*

132

Men

*Totals represent U.S. citizens

or permanent residents.

Women

Each square

is a student.

Demographics of Ph.D.s

The institute

that could

Carlos Castillo-Chavez’s

undergraduate research

program, the Mathematical and

Theoretical Biology Institute

(MTBI), has boosted math

diversity since 1996.

Published by AAAS