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International - Misconduct Cases
German University Withdraws Doctorate in Misconduct Case
Volume 4, No. 4, September 1996
Earlier this year, two years after he allegedly was caught trying
to manipulate the results of a laboratory experiment based on his
thesis, the University of Bonn withdrew the doctorate it had awarded
to a chemistry researcher.
According to a July 11, 1996, news story in Nature, this
may be the first case of its kind reported in Germany, and the accused
is likely to challenge the decision in court.
Guido Zadel, a former doctoral student at the university's Institute
of Organic Chemistry was awarded his Ph.D. at the end of 1993. He
claimed to be able to produce an excess of "right-handed"
or "left-handed" molecules using a static magnetic field
during a chemical reaction.
Other research groups had not been able to reproduce his results.
Even though Zadel reportedly was caught replacing the samples of
one experiment with his own mixtures, he continues to insist that
his results are legitimate and reproducible. He contends that he
had proof in his laboratory notebooks which were stolen and that
a colleague replicated the experiment.
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