Officials at the world's largest particle accelerator have suspended an Italian physicist pending an investigation into his "highly offensive" presentation on gender issues that raised new concerns about sexism in science.

Key points: CERN said Professor Strumia's presentation was "unacceptable in any professional context"

CERN said Professor Strumia's presentation was "unacceptable in any professional context" Professor Strumia said he was suspended because his claims were "contrary to the political line"

Professor Strumia said he was suspended because his claims were "contrary to the political line" An attendee of the seminar said Professor Strumia was challenged after his speech, but the chair abruptly ended the session

A spokesman for the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), said Alessandro Strumia of the University of Pisa was out of line in his talk on Friday for a seminar on High Energy Theory and Gender.

The Geneva-area centre, where the subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson was confirmed in 2013, said it had no prior knowledge of the content of Professor Strumia's presentation and cited its "attacks on individuals" as "unacceptable in any professional context".

A CERN spokesman confirmed a slide presentation on Professor Strumia's talk was found online, but said a recording was not immediately available. The slides featured charts, graphs and tables that are hard to understand out of context, but one quotation said "physics invented and built by men, it's not by invitation".

Professor Strumia told the Associated Press he wanted to debunk what he insists was a misconception, and said he does not believe men are better than women in physics.

"This workshop was continuously [saying] 'men are bad, men are sexist, they discriminate against us', lots of things like this," he said.

"I did a check to see if this was true … and the result was that was not true.

"There is a political group that wants women, and other people, to believe that they are victims," he said.

Noting the suspension, Professor Strumia lashed out at the Geneva centre, but expressed hope that it would come around to his way of thinking.

"I believe CERN is making a mistake. They suspended me because it's true … and it's contrary to the political line. And I hope CERN will at some point understand, I hope this is just the first self-preservation instinct," he said.

"Somebody had to speak."

A CERN spokesman said Professor Strumia's presentation was "unacceptable". ( Reuters: Denis Balibouse )

Strumia's claims challenged by seminar attendees

Laura Covi, who studies cosmology at Georg-August University in Goettingen, Germany and was at the seminar, said Professor Strumia's comments did not go over well.

"He was claiming that some women were getting … positions with fewer [journal] citations than men," she said.

"I'm not so sure his thesis was supported by the data."

The Large Hadron Collider experiment at CERN. ( Reuters: Pierre Albouy )

Professor Covi acknowledged that some of the world's most eminent physicists had been men, but said that was "mostly a historical bias" since men have been able to study physics longer than women.

She also disputed that citations were an indicator of quality and said it wasn't her experience that female physicists were able to land jobs with fewer journal publications than men.

Professor Covi said Professor Strumia had frequently made provocative comments in the past and said he was challenged by many at the seminar after the presentation — so much so that the chair had to abruptly end the session when it ran overtime.

"People were upset by what he was saying. And then he later started to make statements that were completely unscientific," she said, declining to elaborate.

"I don't think he represents the majority view. There were a few men who were there but they didn't support his view."

University College London's Julie Moote, who had spoken earlier in the seminar, said it was a "shame" that Professor Strumia "did not engage" with evidence from other presenters — including her research with more than 40,000 young people in England and interviews over time with youths aged 10 to 18.

"Findings show that young women do experience sexism in physics — from being told by a teacher that 'you need a boy brain to do physics', to survey data showing that boys feel they are encouraged more by their physics teachers than girls," Dr Moote said.

"Which leads to a situation where even some of the highest-attaining young women were doubting that they were 'clever enough' to do physics."

CERN is currently headed by a woman, Italian particle physicist Fabiola Gianotti.

AP