ETH VP resigns over falsified research

Peter Chen is to stand down as Vice President of Research and Corporate Relations at ETH Zurich after an independent investigation – that he instigated – confirmed data were falsified in two papers and a doctoral thesis published in 1999 and 2000.

But Chen will retain his position as full professor of physical-organic chemistry, despite the fact that the falsified research was published by members of a team he then headed.

The five professors – three external and two from ETH – who investigated the case confirmed the falsification, but according to a statement by ETH, “It is not known for certain who was responsible for the falsification.”

The (un-named) author of the doctoral thesis initially withdrew it of his own accord, but later retracted the withdrawal. This put the Executive Board of ETH in the awkward position of having to postpone publication of the misconduct investigation. It is not clear whether this would have shed further light: according to ETH all of those involved in the suspect experiments agree the data was falsified, but they all “categorically deny having carried out the falsifications”.

While ETH President Ralph Eichler said he agreed with the conclusions of the investigation, he added, “Unfortunately there is now no legal way of finding out for sure who was responsible for the falsifications.”

Chen, however, has acknowledged his responsibility as head of the research group at the time. According to the ETH statement, as the current Vice President responsible for quality assurance in research he feels, “especially affected and considers his ability to act compromised”.

Chen’s remit also includes the Scientific Coordination Staff Unit, Euresearch Zurich, the technology transfer agency ETH transfer, the FIRST Lab, the Functional Genomics Centre and the interdisciplinary Electron Microscopy Centre at ETH Zurich.

ETH’s Executive Board said it “deeply regrets” the resignation. “Peter Chen is an impressive researcher and a highly valued member of our board in every respect,” Eichler said. “We very much regret to lose such an accomplished leader, but we are happy that he’ll remain in our midst as a model colleague, outstanding scientist and professor.”

Chen, a US citizen, came to ETH in 1994 from Harvard, where he was associate professor. He was appointed vice president of research at ETH in September 2007.

Huge blow

Embarrassment and damage to reputation aside, Chen’s resignation is a huge blow for ETH’s technology transfer strategy. As the university’s statement puts it, “He embodies a paradigm shift with regard to knowledge transfer at ETH Zurich.”

As a result ETH Zurich is now systematically prospecting the market for new technologies and is more successful than ever before. During Chen’s time in office, 44 spin-off companies have been established, more than 143 patents filed and more than 490 cooperation agreements concluded.

Some of the tensions this may have generated amongst the traditionalists are perhaps evidenced in an ETH comment on the latest strategic partnership to be forged by Chen, with IBM’s Zurich research laboratory. As ETH itself puts it, “Within unusual speed by Swiss standards, that is, within the space of only a few months, the university and the company reached agreement on the construction of joint large-scale laboratory for nanotechnology.”

Another milestone during Chen’s period in office was the industrial partnership between ETH and the Walt Disney Corporation on the ETH campus.

Chen was also responsible for filling the gaps in ETH’s own research sponsorship system, for example, promoting the setting up of the ETH Independent Investigator’s Research Award for doctoral candidates opening up new fields, and a two-year Fellowship programme for advanced researchers,

He also promoted themed and interdisciplinary research. The Competence Centre for Coping with Crises in Socio-Economic Systems and the Centre for Climate Systems Modelling were both inaugurated during his time in office.

For Eichler, one beam of light is that the case shows there are effective measures in place to deal with scientific misconduct. “Scientific misconduct jeopardises the very core of research and must carry consequences,” he said. “This has been the case here and the matter also shows that the established control mechanisms for research really do work.”