Would chimpanzees and humans normally be in the same genus if we weren't so sensitive about it?
I have not seen any research that synonymizes Pan and Homo, but that doesn't mean someone hasn't tried to propose it in the literature at some point.  The proposal to synonymize the two genera of course would need to be based on accepted techniques and not emotion (such as just having a particular fondness for chimps).  And such a synonymy would necessarily synonymize all the ancestors that existed since the most recent common ancestor of humans and chimps, or a new structure for the evolutionary relationships would have to be proposed.

I think it's important to note that while there is a right answer when it comes to the structure of the evolutionary history of species, there are no right answers when it comes to naming conventions.  The names exist for our convenience.  Phylogenetic trees themselves which show evolutionary relationships are utilized for other research such as understanding the evolution of traits.  So I don't know if this researcher is thinking there is some need to re-evaluate the structure of the relationships between humans and chimps for the sake of advancing science, or if he's just trying to get his opinion across and/or cause discomfort.  

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