Purdue reopens fusion fraud probe

Under pressure from Congress, Purdue University has started a new investigation into possible research misconduct by Rusi Taleyarkhan, a faculty member who claimed in a 2002 paper in Science that he had achieved sonofusion in an experiment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (see Physics Today, April 2002, page 16 ). The new investigation comes after a staff report by the subcommittee on investigations and oversight of the House Committee on Science and Technology sharply criticized earlier, more limited investigations by Purdue officials into issues related to the publication of Taleyarkhan’s research.

Taleyarkhan, in an e-mail to the New York Times, called the congressional staff report “a gross travesty of justice.”

In 2006 Purdue set up a fact-finding committee that focused not on the validity of Taleyarkhan’s original research but on “independent” follow-up papers confirming the research. Those papers listed as coauthors two graduate students who worked with Taleyarkhan. One of the students later said he had nothing to do with the writing of the papers, and the other refused to discuss who did. Purdue’s fact-finding committee’s report had specific allegations of fraud, the congressional report says, but Purdue officials responded by setting up another inquiry committee to undertake another fact-finding investigation. That investigation concluded that there was no research misconduct as defined by Purdue’s research standards. Attempts by several independent groups, including a group sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, to replicate Taleyarkhan’s sonofusion work have failed.

In discussions with Purdue officials about beginning a new investigation, subcommittee chairman Brad Miller (D-NC) said he was “disappointed to learn” that three of the members selected to conduct the new probe were on the panel that did the previous investigation. Miller insisted, and Purdue officials have now agreed, on appointing at least one new member.

Congress is involved in the issue because the research was conducted at a national laboratory with some federal funding. The science committee’s investigations subcommittee was shut down when Republicans took control of the House 12 years ago but was reestablished when Democrats won the House last November.