The Higashihiroshima Summary Court has ordered a 56-year-old professor of Hiroshima University to pay ¥300,000 in fines for abusing a student, it was learned Thursday.
Biologist Takeshi Naganuma, who had been indicted for injuring a male student, has appeared in many TV programs and is known as the "Indiana Jones of the scientific world" because of his research on microbes living in polar and remote regions.
According to the university, Naganuma had a fight with the student, who belongs to his lab, in March. The university said Naganuma knocked the student down and spat in his face.
Naganuma, who was found to have used abusive language with other students as well, was placed on a six-month disciplinary leave in July, university officials said.