Findings complete, but controversy is hardly over
By Brian Wallheimer
The [Lafayette, Indiana] Journal & Courier

Saturday, July 19, 2008

After years of allegations and investigation in which he was originally found to have done no wrong, Purdue University researcher Rusi Taleyarkhan has been found guilty of two counts of research misconduct.

But that decision, made public Friday, leaves the issue anything but dead.

Taleyarkhan's attorney, John Lewis of Indianapolis, said he and Taleyarkhan are reviewing options, which could include filing an appeal in the 30-day window provided or suing the university. He said he's concerned that Taleyarkhan was found both guilty and innocent of misconduct in less than 18 months.

"Where does that leave Purdue?" Lewis asked. "We're trying to figure out how to grapple with that, whether it is in court or through the appeals process."

In 2002, Taleyarkhan first claimed to have created bubble fusion as a method of nuclear fusion. It consists of bombarding a liquid with sound waves that rapidly expand and collapse, creating energy. Efforts in the scientific community to duplicate the work have failed, leading to cries of fraud and misconduct.

In 2007, Purdue cleared Taleyarkhan of the charges. But U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., chairman of the investigation subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Technology, said Purdue's inquiry was flawed and called for another. That led to 12 new charges. Taleyarkhan was found guilty on two of them.

Taleyarkhan's detractors are claiming a major victory. Among them are Kenneth Suslick, professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois. Suslick admitted he has made allegations against Taleyarkhan in the past but would not say whether he was one of the people who leveled the most recent charges.

Suslick said the investigative committee's report laid out a pattern of bad conduct by Taleyarkhan even in the areas in which he was found not to have committed misconduct. Suslick applauded the findings Friday.

"They were often damning of the ethical behavior of professor Taleyarkhan," Suslick said. "Not guilty on all counts, but it's enough."

But Taleyarkhan's supporters downplayed the significance of the findings.

"The original charges were far more serious than these things," said Richard T. Lahey, professor of engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Taleyarkhan's dissertation adviser. "These are what was left over after they found there was no basis for the original charges."

Lahey said the science works despite others' inability to replicate it.

"It's like having a master chef. You learn the hard way how to do it and then you have someone else try to make a souffle and it falls," he said. "It's not just science. There's some art involved."

Colin West, a former colleague of Taleyarkhan's at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, said the whole process has been a witch hunt designed to find Taleyarkhan guilty of something, no matter what.

"All the effort and the time that's gone into this and they came up with these two things?" West said. "They have no relevance at all to whether his research is correct and his results are valid. That seems to me a wonderful thing."

C.K. Gunsalus, University of Illinois special counsel and an expert in research ethics, said the charges are very serious, though. She was confused, however, on why the committee did not delve into whether Taleyarkhan's original research was fraudulent.

"The findings of fact are rigorous, they're analytical and they're crisp," Gunsalus said. "But they never address the implication that this research was never replicated without his equipment or under his supervision."

Gunsalus also said the findings of fact seem to find serious fault with Taleyarkhan's actions without finding him guilty.

"I was puzzled by the disconnect between the findings of fact and the conclusions," she said.

Joe Bennett, vice president of university relations at Purdue, said Taleyarkhan is still employed by the university.

"There is an appeal process ... before any further action could be taken," Bennett said.

Bennett would not comment on whether there would be further action once the 30-day appeal window expired or an appeal was finished.

Another question raised is what, if anything, this might mean for Purdue and Taleyarkhan.

Some experts say that depending on the final outcome, Taleyarkhan may have difficulty continuing in the field.

"If he is indeed found guilty, the chance that he will again be able to be successful at winning a federal grant is very, very small and that tends to be very, very important to a scientist's career," said Daniel Wueste, director of Clemson University's Rutland Institute for Ethics, which includes the Center for Academic Integrity.

Purdue's reputation will likely not be impacted by the controversy, he said.

"No university, like no city, can take steps that will prevent any wrongdoing," Wueste said. "Bad things happen even at good universities, and the crucial question is how does the university handle that when it occurs."

Numerous attempts were made to contact Taleyarkhan. Lewis, his attorney, said he was out of the state on Friday. Taleyarkhan's cell phone number was disconnected.

But in a statement released Friday by his attorney, Taleyarkhan said: "There is still much work to do on the important scientific matters at hand and given the process is ongoing, Purdue should not have issued a press release as that was an institutional lapse."

Taleyarkhan has claimed personal differences, jealousy and even racism as reasons for skepticism of his research. He filed a lawsuit against two fellow Purdue professors earlier this year claiming they tried to destroy his reputation. There have been no recent developments in that suit.

-- Contributing: Shari Rudavsky/The Indianapolis Star and The Associated Press

About bubble fusion

Bubble fusion is a process of bombarding a liquid solution with sound waves that cause bubbles to implode, giving off massive amounts of heat and nuclear fusion, which could be used for energy production.

Purdue University researcher Rusi Taleyarkhan claims to have done this and said different researchers have reproduced his experiments, a necessary step in establishing credibility of claimed scientific discovery.

Some researchers believe they have seen bubble fusion, while others who could not recreate the experiment are claiming Taleyarkhan is a fraud. They say Taleyarkhan was present when supposed independent tests were done to confirm Taleyarkhan's work.

(In accordance with Title 17, Section 107, of the U.S. Code, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. New Energy Times has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of the original text in this article; nor is New Energy Times endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

"Go to Original" links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted on New Energy Times may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the "Go to Original" links.