–Noticed C.M. Lieber on many of Jiang’s citations.
…”Lieber has published over 400 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is the principal inventor on more than 50 patents. In his spare time, Lieber has been active in commercializing nanotechnology, and founded the nanotechnology company Nanosys, Inc. in 2001 and the new nanosensor company Vista Therapeutics in 2007.”
Harvard chemistry chief’s arrest over China links shocks researchers
[Feb 2020]
“Researchers have reacted with shock to the arrest of Charles Lieber, a prominent Harvard University chemist and nanotechnology pioneer, who has been charged with making false statements to the US government about receiving research funding from China.
“Lieber, who is known for engineering new nanomaterials and developing their applications in medicine and biology, was arrested on 28 January. Two days later, a federal judge approved his release on cash bail of US$1 million.
“The charges focus on Lieber’s alleged involvement in China’s Thousand Talents Plan, a prestigious programme designed to recruit leading academics to the country. Documents outlining the charges allege that Lieber received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China and agreed to lead a lab there — and that when US government agencies asked about his involvement with the programme he stated that he was not a participant and denied any formal affiliation with WUT. Lieber’s legal team did not respond to Nature’s requests for comment…
“His work, which has included the development of nanometre-diameter wires that can be used as sensors, has won him top awards, among them the 2017 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award and the 2012 Wolf Prize in Chemistry. In 2008, he was tipped by Thomson Reuters as a potential Nobel prizewinner.
“ ‘Charlie is the purest scientific scholar I have ever seen and personally I have 100% trust and confidence in him. I think there must be some misunderstanding during the handling of the case,’ says Xiaocheng Jiang, a former student of Lieber’s who is now a biomedical engineer at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts…
“A spokesperson for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — from which Lieber also received funds — referred Nature’s queries to the FBI, citing an ongoing investigation…
“Details of Lieber’s alleged offences appear in a charging document submitted by the FBI in connection with his arrest. It says… Lieber agreed to be paid a salary of $50,000 per month, as well as about $150,000 a year in personal and living expenses, by WUT, and was given more than $1.5 million to set up a research lab there. According to a contract cited in the document, Lieber was to work at or for WUT for at least nine months a year. Lieber also agreed to host visiting scientists for two-month stints at his US lab, according to the FBI, an agreement that Harvard was not aware of.
…”China’s Thousand Talents Plan has been one focus of the US government’s efforts to crack down on foreign interference in research. In November last year, a US Senate panel suggested that the programme could be a means by which the Chinese government diverts US intellectual property for the state’s own benefit. Michael Lauer, a deputy director at the NIH, told lawmakers that the contracts encouraged participants to set up ‘shadow labs’ in China that replicated their work at US institutions. In December, an elite science advisory group known as JASON recommended in a report that US agencies support fruitful international collaborations while strengthening policies that require scientists to be transparent about conflicts of interest.
…”Lieber is not the first US scientist to become embroiled in ongoing political tensions between the United States and China. Last month, a former scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, who was accused of applying to and being recruited by the Thousand Talents Plan, pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the US government. And the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, recently reported that six employees, including the chief executive, were forced to resign over failing to disclose their connection to the programme.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00291-2
