The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted Harvard professor and former Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology Chairman Dr. Charles Lieber, 61, for making false statements to federal investigators. The investigators are looking at Lieber’s work with China’s Thousand Talents program, according to the DOJ’s press release:
It is alleged that, unbeknownst to Harvard University, beginning in 2011, Lieber became a “Strategic Scientist” at Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China. He later became [a] contractual participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan from at least 2012 through 2015. China’s Thousand Talents Plan is one of the most prominent Chinese talent recruitment plans designed to attract, recruit, and cultivate high-level scientific talent in furtherance of China’s scientific development, economic prosperity and national security. According to court documents, these talent recruitment plans seek to lure Chinese overseas talent and foreign experts to bring their knowledge and experience to China, and they often reward individuals for stealing proprietary information. Under the terms of Lieber’s three-year Thousand Talents contract, WUT allegedly paid Lieber a salary of up to $50,000 USD per month, living expenses of up to 1 million Chinese Yuan (approximately $158,000 USD at the time) and awarded him more than $1.5 million to establish a research lab at WUT. In return, Lieber was obligated to work for WUT “not less than nine months a year” by “declaring international cooperation projects, cultivating young teachers and Ph.D. students, organizing international conference[s], applying for patents and publishing articles in the name of [WUT].”
The Harvard Crimson reports that Dr. Lieber is fighting the charges.
“Professor Lieber has dedicated his life to science and to his students,” (his defense attorney, Mark) Mukasey wrote. “Not money, not fame, just his science and his students. He is the victim in this case, not the perpetrator.”
According to the DOJ, China paid him a $600,000 annual salary, on top of his Harvard salary and his private nanotech business ventures. – READ MORE
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