On September 26th, a thread began circulating on Twitter depicting an anonymous accounting harassing a female scientist for her appearance.  Upon further examination, it was clear that this anonymous account (now defunct) account, The Science Femme (@piney_the), had been weaponizing its inconspicuousness for nearly two years in order to promote hate against marginalized communities in science.  The account, which pretended to be a female, academic scientist of color, used this (later found to be) falsified identity in order to prey upon, manipulate and harass diverse individuals (especially womxn and non-binary individuals) within the scientific community.  "Her" tweets included profoundly racist comments, comments promoting exclusion of disabled students in STEM (or students with disabilities), and even a story about successfully killing some of his department's DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) efforts.  To say the tweets promoted hate speech, would be an understatement.

          On September 28th, after comments made by the @piney_the account had made their rounds in the Science Twitterverse, a thread was posted by Science Drama Queen (@drama_science) detailing what they'd uncovered. It appeared that the account was not in fact managed by a female scientist of color, but rather a white, male chemistry professor at the University of New Hampshire.  This professor, Craig Chapman, admitted to authoring the tweets, and has since deleted both his personal (@chemicalcraig) and anonymous accounts, which, taken together, were used to successfully identify him.  The department chair responded by exuding his support for Craig Chapman's (questionable) character. According to an article in an independent, student-run newspaper at the University of New Hampshire, The New Hampshire, 

                   "Chemistry Department Chair Glen Miller allegedly confirmed in an email to faculty that The Science Femme was in fact run by Chapman. Miller condemned the offensive statements, but said he is supportive of Chapman as a person."

         The marginalization and underrepresentation of Black and Indigenous people of color, as well as disabled students, are well documented.  Academia has repeatedly found itself on the wrong side of history by perpetuating these wrongdoings and injustices. To allow Craig Chapman to continue to hold his position as a Chemistry professor at the University of New Hampshire is to continue to uphold the same white supremacist and ableist systems that have long promoted these injustices. We are at a turning point.  Academia (and UNH) as an institution can choose to dismiss abhorrent racist, ableist, exclusionary behavior and excuse it with comments about someone's supposed good character, or they can do something about it. 

Terminate Assistant Professor Craig Chapman.

Source: UNH Professor Accused of Posing as a Woman of Color on Twitter