MU tries to reach missing scientist

MU’s Standing Committee on Research Responsibility is scheduled to meet March 8 to review allegations against a researcher who is accused of doctoring photographs that accompanied research published last year in Science magazine.

But the researcher, Kaushik Deb, is nowhere to be found.

Robert Hall, associate vice chancellor for research at MU, said the university has taken every step to notify Deb of next month’s hearing, from phone calls to certified mailings. Deb had not yet responded as of Thursday afternoon. Hall said, to the best of his knowledge, Deb is no longer employed by the university.

“If I knew where he was, I would get in my car and drive over and knock on his door,” Hall said. “I don’t have the power to send the sheriff’s deputy out to pick him up. I don’t have the power to ask the FBI to go pick him up. But I have done everything short of that.”

Deb is under investigation for allegedly manipulating images of mouse embryos that were part of peer-reviewed research published last February.

On Jan. 17, MU provost Brian Foster notified three other researchers who were also under scrutiny, including lead researcher R. Michael Roberts, that there was not enough evidence to pursue charges of academic fraud.

Roberts said that Deb, a post-doctoral fellow in Roberts’ lab, left MU without notice last July, a month after the investigation began.

The research responsibility committee, which is similar to a grand jury, will hear evidence collected earlier in the investigation process. Normally, the person under review would be able to present witnesses, introduce evidence and speak on his or her behalf. As of Thursday, the university had no evidence that Deb would be present for his hearing.

After hearing all of the evidence, the committee will either announce that Deb did nothing wrong or send a recommendation to MU Chancellor Brady Deaton, who could impose sanctions, including termination of Deb’s employment. Because Deb may no longer work at the university, Hall said Deaton also has the option of issuing a public statement of reprimand.

“It may well be that the chancellor would issue a statement saying this individual is no longer an employee at the university,” Hall said, “but were they an employee, they would be fired.”

Such a finding could seriously affect Deb’s ability to do federally funded research in the future. Because the research in question was funded in part by a federal grant, the results of the investigation must be forwarded to the Office of Research Integrity. That office could then impose additional sanctions, the harshest of which could render Deb ineligible for federal funds for a period of time.

“In the world of modern science, 3 to 5 years without access to federal funds is a lifetime,” Hall said. “That is essentially fatal to a career.”

—Missourian reporter Matt Wynn contributed to this story.