A high-profile University of Colorado professor has been fired by the Board of Regents for "moral turpitude" following allegations of sexual harassment and assault of female students. The dismissal of tenured physics professor Igor Gamow came on the recommendation of CU president Betsy Hoffman and after two days of closed-door hearings last week by regents with Gamow and his attorneys. It also comes after a 2002 federal suit by student-employee Dana Ruehlman, a lab assistant who accused him of sexual harassment from her hiring in 1993 to 2001.

Regents did not comment on the firing.

Gamow, whose teaching duties were suspended in 2000, has denied the allegations. He couldn't be reached for comment Friday.

He had been teaching at CU since 1968.

Ruehlman said in her suit that she submitted to the harassment because Gamow "repeatedly made clear to her that submission ... was a condition" of her employment.

At least two other students had filed internal CU complaints against Gamow "alleging shockingly unwelcome sexual harassment," says Ruehlman's suit, which is ongoing.

Gamow, 68, is the son of the late George Gamow, an acclaimed astrophysicist, whose work advanced the big-bang theory. The tower that houses the CU-Boulder physics department is named for the elder Gamow.