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By reporting fraud, my husband acted to protect the scientific integrity of repositories of knowledge in libraries and databases. Protecting these valuable but endangered resources from the introduction of falsified publications must be done early in the manuscript review stage.<\/p>\n
My husband was a faculty member in the School of Medicine and Director of a Microscopy\u00a0Imaging Center at a state university in the USA. There he witnessed, proved and reported scientific fraud in the laboratory of the University Vice President for Research.<\/p>\n
Following his medical school\u2019s faculty code of ethics, my husband reported the fraud to\u00a0his supervisor. Independently, two investigative committees confirmed the misconduct by\u00a0failing to reproduce the intended results.\u00a0 Confronted by these committees, the Vice\u00a0President professed to have had no knowledge of the fraud, which he ascribed to a subordinate in\u00a0his laboratory.<\/p>\n
Investigative committees disagreed, learning that the University and\u00a0President knew of the Vice President\u2019s long record of scientific and sexual misconduct\u00a0yet had covered up these acts for years at the expense of witnesses, victims and\u00a0taxpayers.<\/p>\n
The administration dismissed this individual as Vice President and reappointed him as\u00a0Vice Dean for Scientific Affairs in the Medical School, thereby making him my husband\u2019s part-time supervisor. Immediately, he retaliated against my husband for his initial\u00a0report with squarely aimed threats. The University administration had ignored his latest\u00a0fraudulent act, rewarding him instead with a new appointment and enabling him to attend a theological seminary for a master of divinity degree. Returning to campus, he eluded his\u00a0official duties to pursue pastoral work and to teach ethics to medical students. Thriving\u00a0with salary increases and endless cover for criminal behaviour spanning decades, the\u00a0perpetrator, (with the assistance of the University and deeply rooted tentacles both\u00a0inside and outside campus) could easily eliminate my husband simply because of his\u00a0expertise, scientific knowledge and willingness to report wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
My husband\u2019s laboratory was soon vandalized and home was no longer our refuge as vandals\u00a0also attacked our property. We reported the vandalism along with the poison pen letters\u00a0and graffiti to the University, USPS Postmaster and to County police. County police\u00a0advised us to preserve evidence in the Courts. Coincidentally, the vandalism stopped\u00a0with the Court complaint. My husband\u2019s peers of nearly 30 years hid becoming, in effect,\u00a0accomplices.\u00a0 Privately, a few colleagues offered their support.<\/p>\n
Though we won two court cases, we ended up deeply in debt, never recovering two lost\u00a0decades fighting for our careers, lives, reputations and our children\u2019s future. My\u00a0husband\u2019s colleagues grew ever more distant.<\/p>\n
With the conclusion of litigation, the University administration not only terminated my\u00a0husband\u2019s employment, they erased his campus legacy and very existence, making it\u00a0impossible for him to find a new job. The University administration denied retaliation,\u00a0claiming his job loss resulted from either a personnel or budgetary issue and banned\u00a0further discussion. No one else in his former department lost their job.<\/p>\n
Despite the\u00a0harrowing ordeal, my husband maintained an impeccable employment record with revenue\u00a0generating inventions, two important textbooks, the design and execution of a showpiece\u00a0microscopy imaging center, minority investigator status with the National Institutes of\u00a0Health, successful teaching of complex\/ gateway courses and, most importantly, solid\u00a0reproducible research. Due to his career loss, my husband fell into an unbearable\u00a0isolation and sadness that eventually precipitated first a myocardial infarction, then\u00a0terminal cancer.<\/p>\n
Those who report scientific or fiscal fraud, like survivors of sexual assault on\u00a0campuses, must be sheltered by a respected whistleblower\u2019s umbrella law protecting those\u00a0both knowledgeable and brave enough to disclose these acts of misconduct.\u00a0Misconduct at\u00a0universities should be reported directly to police for investigation and enforcement,\u00a0away from the safe zone of university campuses.<\/p>\n