Ученый приговорён к лишению свободы

[teak]

В первые в истории в США учённый приговорен к лишению свободы за фальсификацию научных исследований с целью получения федеральных грантов. Так же обвиняемый получил пожизненный запрет на федеральные деньги для исследований.

BURLINGTON, Vt. --A former University of Vermont College of Medicine professor was ordered Wednesday to serve a year and a day in federal prison for using false data to obtain federal research grants.

Eric Poehlman, 50, who left UVM in 2001 for the University of Montreal and was fired from there amid revelations about his scientific misconduct, will serve the sentence at a federal prison work camp in Maryland.

An official with the National Institutes of Health said Poehlman's case marked the first time a researcher would serve time in prison for falsifying data to obtain federal grants.

Judge William Sessions III imposed the sentence despite Poehlman's plea in a letter to the court that he not be required to serve jail time, and his statement in court Wednesday that he was "someone who has changed. I'm not a professor. I realize that door has closed."

Poehlman, a specialist in exercise physiology, changed and made up research in applications and papers on the effect of menopause on women's metabolism, the impact of aging on older men and women, the impact of hormone replacement therapy on obesity in post-menopausal women, the study of metabolism in Alzheimer's patients and the effect of endurance training on metabolism.

In an agreement with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty in connection with one $542,000 grant; the government said he defrauded federal agencies out of $2.9 million.

Poehlman also told Sessions that he was under pressure to win federal grants, saying the number of grants a researcher received "determined your academic wealth."

Изменено 1 июля 2006 пользователем teak (история изменений)