An independent committee investigating the validity of certain Bell Labs research concludes that one member of its research staff - Jan Hendrick Schoen - had engaged in scientific misconduct by falsifying and fabricating experimental data between 1998 and 2001 (Bulletin 434, May 27, 2002).

This
scientist's employment with Lucent Technologies has been terminated. The
committee cleared all the other researchers who had contributed to the
experiments, and who were co-authors on several published papers, of any
scientific misconduct. Bell Labs proactively formed the committee in May
after questions arose regarding the validity of data in several published
papers authored by a total of 20 researchers from Bell Labs and other
institutions. The experiments in question were in the areas of
superconductivity, molecular crystals and molecular electronics.

'The evidence that manipulation and misrepresentation of data occurred is
compelling,' the committee wrote, linking all misconduct to Hendrick Schoen.

According to the committee, he committed falsification or fabrication of
data on at least 16 occasions. Some of the falsifications were interrelated.
The committee's report says that Hendrick Schoen 'did this intentionally or
recklessly and without the knowledge of any of his co-authors.'

Bill O'Shea, president of Bell Labs, said, 'We are deeply disappointed that
a case of scientific misconduct has occurred at Bell Labs -- the first in
our 77-year history. Since Bell Labs' founding in 1925, tens of thousands of
Bell Labs scientists and engineers have fait