Story highlights Scientist and Nobel laureate says women in labs "fall in love with you and when you criticize them, they cry"

Hunt apologized for any offense caused by his remarks, but stood by them

"I did mean the part about having trouble with girls," he told the BBC

(CNN) A scientist and Nobel laureate has sparked criticism after saying women in laboratories "fall in love with you and when you criticize them, they cry." He also spoke in support of gender-segregated workplaces.

Tim Hunt made the remarks at the World Conference of Science Journalists in South Korea. His comments were tweeted out by Connie St. Louis, director of the MA Science Journalism program at London's City University, who was also present at the gathering.

"We were all stunned," St. Louis told CNN. "I particularly was deeply embarrassed," she added, referring to an audience of about 100 people, who included female journalists from Korea and around the world.

Nobel scientist Tim Hunt FRS @royalsociety says at Korean women lunch "I'm a chauvinist and keep 'girls' single lab pic.twitter.com/Z9NhykaTPv — Connie St Louis (@connie_stlouis) June 8, 2015

"I did mean the part about having trouble with girls. It is true that people -- I have fallen in love with people in the lab and people in the lab have fallen in love with me and it's very disruptive to the science because it's terribly important that in a lab people are on a level playing field," he said. "I found that these emotional entanglements made life very difficult.