James Watson, a famous for DNA researcher but widely condemned for recent comments about intelligence levels among blacks, retired Thursday from his post at a prestigious research institution.

Watson, 79, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York announced his departure a week after the lab suspended him. He was chancellor of the institution, and his retirement took effect immediately.

Dr. Watson, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for describing the double-helix structure of DNA, and later headed the American government’s part in the international Human Genome Project, is one of America's most prominent scientists.

In his statement Thursday, Watson said that because of his age, his retirement was "more than overdue. The circumstances, in which this transfer is occurring, however, are not those which I could ever have anticipated or desired."

Watson suggested that, overall, people of African descent are not as intelligent as people of European descent. The scientist was quoted as saying that he is "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours ­ whereas all the testing says not really."

Watson would like to believe that everyone is equal, but that "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true."