An Italian scientist has been suspended by one of the world's leading leading nuclear research centres after he gave a presentation saying "physics was invented and built by men".

CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, said on Monday it was shocked by the "highly offensive" comments made by Professor Alessandro Strumia from Pisa University at a conference.

The centre also wiped slides from his talk from its website “in line with a code of conduct that does not tolerate personal attacks and insults” and said it was reassessing its relationship with the researcher after an outcry from physicists and scientists around the world.

In his presentation Professor Strumia said male scientists rather than female scientists were suffering from discrimination that was based on ideology rather than merit.

“CERN considers the presentation delivered by an invited scientist during a workshop as highly offensive and supports the many members of the community that have expressed their indignation,” said Arnaud Marsollier, media spokesman for CERN.

Prof Strumia could not be reached on Monday but has reportedly defended his comments despite the outcry.

CERN, the organisation which discovered the Higgs Boson particle in 2012, hosted the conference on high energy physics and gender in Genoa on Friday.