He's wrong to not report conflict of interest on national defense funding, but how is establishing a lab elsewhere alone egregious?
Private research institutes, like corporations, don't own people who work for them.
Private research institutes, like corporations, don't own people who work for them.
If the allegations are true then he probably began by overstepping his authority at Harvard for his personal financial gain. He may have been reluctant to disclose the relationship as required for the US grants because doing so would have simultaneously disclosed to Harvard his egregious violation its policy, possibly resulting in termination of his employment.
Maybe he was hiding the money from the IRS as well, giving him further motive to conceal and deny.
Had he entered into the agreement strictly personally then he almost certainly would have told Harvard which would have disclosed it to the government. Maybe the Chinese sponsors wouldn't have offered as much money for that. Alternatively, he could have asked Harvard to enter into the agreement through the proper channels, but then in that case surely the university would be getting the money and not the professor personally.
I don’t think anyone is saying “don’t establish a lab” but if someone asks you whether you’re being paid by foreign interests you can’t just say “I don’t know who the organization is that had been paying me for years.”
This has nothing to do with conflict of interest, outside of the conflicts between DoD and whether clearances / grants are released to those that are being paid by other nation states.
God knows why he wanted to lie, perhaps the DoD grants are really important for the lab. Giving how sensitive things are with China, I think it's fair to say that it would have had a large impact on those grants.
I do know some professor with 40+ graduates/post-graduates. It feels like academia have became mini feudal fiefdoms but instead of farming land it farm grants, with papers.
Faculty are required to report outside jobs, see: https://provost.harvard.edu/statement-outside-activities-hol...
Do you know when you accept big grant you also must follow similar rules?
Yes, you can collaborate in science, but you do not live in a vacuum, scientists also need to follow the rules of a society.
If the goal is for science, there shouldn't be restriction on working with other country in order to accept grant.