Nation IN BRIEF : NEW YORK : Nobel Winner Quits as University Chief

Nobel Prize-winning scientist David Baltimore, a key figure in one of the nation’s most controversial and long-running scientific fraud investigations, resigned as president of New York City’s Rockefeller University. Baltimore said the controversy had created “a climate of unhappiness among some in the university that could not be dispelled.” Baltimore’s announcement marks the latest setback for one of the most successful scientists of his generation. Baltimore won the 1975 Nobel Prize in medicine for his pioneering work in the molecular biology of viruses. The fraud controversy stemmed from a 1986 paper he published in the journal Cell. A researcher involved with the paper was accused of faking data. Although Baltimore was never accused of misconduct, his vociferous defense of the researcher brought harsh criticism.