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Professor files defamation lawsuit
By Nadine Mahasneh, Assistant Campus Editor
The [PurdueUniversity] Exponent

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

One professor in the department of Nuclear Engineering is pursuing legal action against two faculty members who he says defamed him.

Professor Rusi Taleyarkhan published research in 2002 stating that he created Bubble Fusion, a cost efficient and environmentally-friendly form of nuclear energy.

After issues sprouted on whether the research and results were valid, Purdue filed an investigation, which would examine any possible research misconduct with Bubble Fusion.

Taleyarkhan is suing professors Lefteri Tsoukalas and Tatjana Jevremovic for defamation and racial discrimination, which he says he experienced after presenting his research.

"People should have to answer for their decisions to discriminate and talk poorly of others when it is wrong and it hurts them, both emotionally and financially," he wrote in an e-mail.

Taleyarkhan said racial comments made against him have damaged his reputation. He believes a lawsuit will set the precedent to protect people in the future from having to suffer racial tension and other problems, such as "to stop the damage done to the progress of science and sonofusion - and advance its progress to help solve the world's energy crises," he said.

Tsoukalas and Jevremovic were unavailable for comment, but Roger Bennett, an attorney for the two, said with Tsoukalas being from another country himself, it is hard to imagine he would discriminate based on race or nationality.

"Professor Tsoukalas is an immigrant; I don't think he has bias on the basis of their race or nationality.

"I know professor Tsoukalas, we have talked a lot about the Taleyarkhan matter," he said. "I would be shocked if anyone would say Tsoukalas said anything like that (racial comments) about Taleyarkhan."

Bennett said he thinks the key issue is what the Purdue report would say, which would determine whether the accusations against the validity of Taleyarkhan's results are true or false.

"I believe it's accurate to say the University owed a thorough report on an investigation of Taleyarkhan," he said.

Bennett said if Taleyarkhan did engage in research misconduct, Tsoukalas and Jevremovic were correct in saying the Bubble Fusion results were questionable.

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