The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology has launched an inquiry amid allegations that professor of paper science Michael Sinnott sent an email in July to Harvard University's Stephen Greenblatt in which he describes Israel as "the mirror of Nazism".
A Umist spokesman said: "We have to look to see if academic rules and regulations have been broken."
The inquiry will not be as far-reaching as the independent inquiry into Umist intercultural studies professor Mona Baker, who sacked two Israeli academics from journals she edited. This is expected to report in the next six weeks.