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Nano researcher Better after a court hearing
Photo: Katherine Taylor / REUTERS
The nano researcher Charles Lieber is considered to be a leader in his field.
The scientist from Harvard University has long been traded for the Nobel Prize, he is one of the most cited researchers of his profession.
But for some time now, his career has taken a turn for the worse. The renowned university took Lieber on leave at the beginning of last year. The reason: he is said to have worked for the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China and a Chinese science program between 2011 and 2017 without the university's knowledge. He also deceived the US tax authorities and failed to disclose the significant income from the activity.
When the scientist was questioned about his activities by US authorities, including the Department of Defense and the National Institute of Health, from which he had received funding, he was allegedly not telling the truth. Because of these allegations, Lieber was on trial. At the end of December, the 62-year-old was found guilty of all charges after five days of trial.
According to the allegations, Lieber is said to have received from the Chinese under a three-year contract $ 50,000 per month in income plus about $ 150,000 in living expenses. In addition, he should set up a laboratory in Wuhan with 1.5 million dollars. Some of the jobs he was paid to do included publishing articles, organizing international conferences, and applying for patents on behalf of the Chinese university. It would rather be part of the "Thousand Talents" program, with which China wants to recruit top-class researchers and other people with knowledge of foreign cutting-edge technology.
Such initiatives naturally meet with little enthusiasm among the US authorities.
The Ministry of Justice launched a counter-program in 2018 under the administration of Donald Trump, the "China Initiative".
This is intended to contain industrial espionage from China, protect intellectual property and keep new ideas in the country.
According to the MIT Technology Review, the program has already determined around 150 cases, but Lieber is the best-known scientist to be convicted.
His sentence has not yet been determined.
Discrimination against Chinese Scientists
Some researchers fear that one might want to set an example in Lieber, who developed tiny microchips, for example. The "China Initiative" is viewed critically in the scientific world anyway. Many researchers believe that it ultimately harms the knowledge gained and leads to discrimination against Chinese scientists, since many of the accused are Chinese who work in the USA.
Hundreds of faculty members from Stanford, Yale, Berkeley, Princeton, Temple, and other prominent colleges have signed letters to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging him to end the initiative.
According to the academics, the "China Initiative" has a deterrent effect on recruiting foreign scientists.
The letters also complain that the investigation is disproportionately targeting researchers of Chinese origin.
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