The article reports on the decision of the Utrecht University in the Netherlands to remove the name of chemistry Nobel Laureate Peter J. W. Debye on its Debye Institute of Physics & Chemistry of Nanomaterials & Interfaces. A book about physics Noble Laureate Albert Einstein has led to the decision of the university to abandon the Debye name in its institute. Debye has been accused as a Nazi collaborator in Berlin in 1930

The article reports that two universities in the Netherlands have distanced themselves from Dutch physicist and 1936 Nobel laureate Peter Debye after new revelations about Debye's closeness to the German Nazi regime. Utrecht University in Utrecht, the Netherlands, said last week that it will rename its Debye Institute--a decision the institute director calls hasty--and Maastricht University in Maastricht, the Netherlands, will no longer award the Peter Debye Prize for science unless the foundation sponsoring the award renames it. Debye succeeded Albert Einstein as director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin, Germany, in 1934 and remained until 1939, when he left and took a job at Cornell University. Although Debye was known to have helped expel Jews from the German Physical Society, which he chaired in 1938, he has often been painted as an apolitical figure. But in a recent dissertation, science journalist and historian Sybe Rispens claims Debye displayed considerable loyalty to the Nazi regime, signing personal letters with "Heil Hitler" and offering to return to Berlin as late as 1941

The article reports that two of the leading universities in the Netherlands have disassociated themselves from the Dutch-born Nobel laureate, Peter J.W. Debye, because of evidence, presented in a new book, that the renowned scientist may have been a Nazi sympathizer. Last month Utrecht University stripped the chemist's name from the Debye Institute of Physics and Chemistry of Nanomaterials and Interfaces, and the University of Maastricht has said that it will no longer affiliate itself with a science prize named for Debye. Before renouncing their connections with the scientist, the universities consulted jointly with the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, in Amsterdam, an organization established soon after the German occupation of the Netherlands ended in 1945

The article focuses on a controversy associated with witnessed Nazi sympathies of Dutch chemistry Nobel laureate Peter Debye. The publication of a pro-Debye book by an employee was stopped by Utrecht University in Utrecht, The Netherlands. The university ordered staff not to discuss the issue with the media. Earlier, the university decided to strip Debye's name from its institute for nanomaterials. However, another Dutch Nobel laureate, Martinus Veitman, and a science historian have supported Debye. Cornell University undertook its own 3-month investigation and concluded that it is going to support Debye. Debye was a professor in Cornell University from 1940 until his death in 1966. The American Chemical Society has also decided to support Debye. The outburst against Debye erupted after the publication of a harsh view of him