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Results of Inquiry into the Validity of Certain Physics Research Papers from Bell Labs

Independent committee finds one researcher committed scientific misconduct,
clears the 19 other authors investigated

Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Lucent Technologies

"We are deeply disappointed that a case of scientific misconduct has occurred at Bell Labs - the first in our 77-year history. Since Bell Labs' founding in 1925, tens of thousands of Bell Labs scientists and engineers have faithfully abided by the scientific honor code. That's an enviable track record, but we take this one exception very seriously. Last spring, when questions about the validity of this data arose, Bell Labs moved swiftly, voluntarily and decisively. In addition to requesting the committee's review, we immediately brought the matter to the attention of the scientific journals in which the work had originally been published."
-- Bill O'Shea, President, Bell Labs

MURRAY HILL, N.J. -- LT
On this Web site Lucent Technologies is making public the results of an investigation of allegations of scientific misconduct at our Bell Labs unit. The company appointed an independent committee last May to investigate charges that one or more of our employees had falsified experimental data in several published research papers. The experiments in question were in the areas of superconductivity, molecular crystals and molecular electronics, and were not related to any of Lucent's current commercial products.

Lucent has taken this matter seriously, acting swiftly and proactively to arrive at the truth. The creation of this review committee was central to our investigation. Chaired by Malcolm Beasley, the Theodore and Sydney Rosenberg Professor of Applied Physics and former dean at Stanford University, and comprising four other eminent scientists and engineers, the group was given full freedom and authority to conduct an objective review of the challenged research, to determine the scope of the inquiry, to interview any Lucent employees, and to review lab records, reports of previous internal investigations and other documents.

In addition, Lucent immediately brought the matter to the attention of the scientific journals in which the work had originally been published.

Throughout this process, the company and the independent committee have followed the U.S. Federal guidelines that are accepted by the scientific community as standard practice for misconduct investigations.

Click on the links below for either the committee's full report, which begins with an executive summary or just the executive summary.

* Download Committee's Report
(127 page PDF document - file size 2154k)

* Download Executive Summary
(3 page PDF document - file size 100k)

To learn more about how Lucent is responding to this incident, read our press release.
(More: Lucent.com News Source)
2002 © Lucent Technologies.

Dan