Stupid Judge
Stupid judges: proving that even a great scientist cannot escape from this shitty system.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/09/04/nobel_laureate_loses_appeal_on_divorce?mode=PF
Nobel laureate loses appeal on divorce
By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | September 4, 2004
The Nobel Prize in Physics isn't what it's cracked up to be, at least when it comes to making money. That's what MIT professor Wolfgang Ketterle, a co-recipient of the 2001 prize, argued in appealing a divorce judgment that he said inflated the impact of the award on his earning potential.
But a state Appeals Court panel yesterday disagreed. In a decision that provided an unusual glimpse into the personal travails of a Nobel laureate, the panel upheld the ruling of a probate court judge who said the prize shared by Ketterle "opens wide new horizons for his income potential." In comparison, the court found the prospects of his former wife, a teacher's aide in Brookline public schools, "paltry and stagnant."
"We . . . discern no error in the judge's determination that the Nobel Prize, in combination with the husband's brilliance, work ethic, good health, and relative youth (he was 44 at the time of the trial), will provide him with significant future income and assets given the extraordinary nature of his scientific breakthrough, its worldwide recognition, and its projected near and long-term technological applications," the court said.
Ketterle shared the $1 million Nobel Prize with two researchers in Colorado for discovering how to cool atoms to the brink of absolute zero and create a "Bose-Einstein condensate." The atoms form a cloud unlike anything usually seen in nature, a ghostly mass where all atoms appear to combine and move as one.
Since 1995, when the tiny, supercooled clouds were first created, they have transformed physics, allowing scientists to slow a beam of light to less than 40 miles per hour, scientists said after the Nobel Prize was awarded. The discovery could one day enable scientists to build a new breed of small, ultrapowerful computers, as well as guidance systems far more accurate than the Global Positioning System.
But Ketterle, a German-born, tenured professor, said yesterday that the technological applications cited by Norfolk Probate and Family Court Judge Christina L. Harms in her 2002 divorce ruling are so far off in the future that he didn't even bother to patent his discovery.
"Maybe if you win a Nobel Prize in economics, you make a lot of money by giving talks . . . but not in my area," he said in a telephone interview. "I think the judge just ignored the fact that there are Nobel Prizes which are just an enormous honor, but they don't make you rich. I have not seen any more financial rewards -- except for the Nobel Prize money itself."
He said he had not decided whether to appeal to the state Supreme Judicial Court.
Regina Healy, the lawyer for the professor's former wife, Gabriele Ketterle, said she was not surprised by the appellate panel's decision. "The judge thought the likelihood of him acquiring future assets was huge because of his world renown, and, of course, he's a chaired professor at MIT," she said.
Wolfgang Ketterle earned $179,160 at MIT in 2001, compared with $7,317 earned by his former wife as a part-time teacher's aide, according to the appellate panel.
Healy was disappointed that the panel ruled that the probate judge prematurely ordered the professor to pay for the college education of all three of the couple's children. The panel said Wolfgang Ketterle must pay the costs for his eldest child, who is attending Stanford University, but should not have been ordered yet to do the same for the two younger children.
But Healy said the ruling merely means that the probate judge must decide which parent foots the bill shortly before the younger children -- who are now 15 and 11, according to Healy -- go to college. Healy was confident that the court will order their father to do so. Gabriele Ketterle and Wolfgang Ketterle have joint custody of the children.
The Ketterles were married in 1985 in Germany, and both later moved to the United States. Gabriele Ketterle tended to the family and home while her husband worked long hours at the laboratory, said the probate judge.
In August 2001, Gabriele Ketterle was committed for a period to McLean Hospital because of a suicide attempt and severe depression. In late August, she filed for divorce. About six weeks later, the Nobel Prize was announced.
The prize was valued at $1 million, and Wolfgang Ketterle received a third, which amounted to $166,000 after taxes, according to the Appeals Court. He gave half of that to his mentor at MIT, physics professor David E. Pritchard.
At the end of the divorce trial, the judge awarded the Ketterles' house in Brookline, with equity of $578,000, to Gabriele Ketterle, and retirement funds valued at about $183,000 and the Nobel Prize proceeds to Wolfgang Ketterle.
The judge ordered the professor to pay his former wife monthly child support of $2,500 and monthly alimony of $2,000.
But the Nobel laureate objected to the division of assets, saying his former wife should refinance the house and provide him with cash that would enable him to take, as he argued, his "half," according to the Appeals Court decision. He said the divorce judgment left him "cash-poor."
In upholding the judge's order, the Appeals Court cited the former wife's "limited vocational skills and mental illness."
© Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
By the way, I'm well aware that this took place a little more than a year ago. To me, that's irrelevant. This is what I believe feminists want: to strip a man down to nothing, as what is happening to this guy. Fucking parasites.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/09/04/nobel_laureate_loses_appeal_on_divorce?mode=PF
Nobel laureate loses appeal on divorce
By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | September 4, 2004
The Nobel Prize in Physics isn't what it's cracked up to be, at least when it comes to making money. That's what MIT professor Wolfgang Ketterle, a co-recipient of the 2001 prize, argued in appealing a divorce judgment that he said inflated the impact of the award on his earning potential.
But a state Appeals Court panel yesterday disagreed. In a decision that provided an unusual glimpse into the personal travails of a Nobel laureate, the panel upheld the ruling of a probate court judge who said the prize shared by Ketterle "opens wide new horizons for his income potential." In comparison, the court found the prospects of his former wife, a teacher's aide in Brookline public schools, "paltry and stagnant."
"We . . . discern no error in the judge's determination that the Nobel Prize, in combination with the husband's brilliance, work ethic, good health, and relative youth (he was 44 at the time of the trial), will provide him with significant future income and assets given the extraordinary nature of his scientific breakthrough, its worldwide recognition, and its projected near and long-term technological applications," the court said.
Ketterle shared the $1 million Nobel Prize with two researchers in Colorado for discovering how to cool atoms to the brink of absolute zero and create a "Bose-Einstein condensate." The atoms form a cloud unlike anything usually seen in nature, a ghostly mass where all atoms appear to combine and move as one.
Since 1995, when the tiny, supercooled clouds were first created, they have transformed physics, allowing scientists to slow a beam of light to less than 40 miles per hour, scientists said after the Nobel Prize was awarded. The discovery could one day enable scientists to build a new breed of small, ultrapowerful computers, as well as guidance systems far more accurate than the Global Positioning System.
But Ketterle, a German-born, tenured professor, said yesterday that the technological applications cited by Norfolk Probate and Family Court Judge Christina L. Harms in her 2002 divorce ruling are so far off in the future that he didn't even bother to patent his discovery.
"Maybe if you win a Nobel Prize in economics, you make a lot of money by giving talks . . . but not in my area," he said in a telephone interview. "I think the judge just ignored the fact that there are Nobel Prizes which are just an enormous honor, but they don't make you rich. I have not seen any more financial rewards -- except for the Nobel Prize money itself."
He said he had not decided whether to appeal to the state Supreme Judicial Court.
Regina Healy, the lawyer for the professor's former wife, Gabriele Ketterle, said she was not surprised by the appellate panel's decision. "The judge thought the likelihood of him acquiring future assets was huge because of his world renown, and, of course, he's a chaired professor at MIT," she said.
Wolfgang Ketterle earned $179,160 at MIT in 2001, compared with $7,317 earned by his former wife as a part-time teacher's aide, according to the appellate panel.
Healy was disappointed that the panel ruled that the probate judge prematurely ordered the professor to pay for the college education of all three of the couple's children. The panel said Wolfgang Ketterle must pay the costs for his eldest child, who is attending Stanford University, but should not have been ordered yet to do the same for the two younger children.
But Healy said the ruling merely means that the probate judge must decide which parent foots the bill shortly before the younger children -- who are now 15 and 11, according to Healy -- go to college. Healy was confident that the court will order their father to do so. Gabriele Ketterle and Wolfgang Ketterle have joint custody of the children.
The Ketterles were married in 1985 in Germany, and both later moved to the United States. Gabriele Ketterle tended to the family and home while her husband worked long hours at the laboratory, said the probate judge.
In August 2001, Gabriele Ketterle was committed for a period to McLean Hospital because of a suicide attempt and severe depression. In late August, she filed for divorce. About six weeks later, the Nobel Prize was announced.
The prize was valued at $1 million, and Wolfgang Ketterle received a third, which amounted to $166,000 after taxes, according to the Appeals Court. He gave half of that to his mentor at MIT, physics professor David E. Pritchard.
At the end of the divorce trial, the judge awarded the Ketterles' house in Brookline, with equity of $578,000, to Gabriele Ketterle, and retirement funds valued at about $183,000 and the Nobel Prize proceeds to Wolfgang Ketterle.
The judge ordered the professor to pay his former wife monthly child support of $2,500 and monthly alimony of $2,000.
But the Nobel laureate objected to the division of assets, saying his former wife should refinance the house and provide him with cash that would enable him to take, as he argued, his "half," according to the Appeals Court decision. He said the divorce judgment left him "cash-poor."
In upholding the judge's order, the Appeals Court cited the former wife's "limited vocational skills and mental illness."
© Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
By the way, I'm well aware that this took place a little more than a year ago. To me, that's irrelevant. This is what I believe feminists want: to strip a man down to nothing, as what is happening to this guy. Fucking parasites.