Harvard Chemistry Chair & Two Chinese Nationals Arrested For Lying About China Ties, Smuggling "Biological Material"
Posted by freedomforall 4 years, 2 months ago to Government
Lieber was reportedly paid $50,000 a month by Wuhan University of Technology for participating in its "Thousand Talents" program, and was given more than $1.5 million to establish a lab and do research at Wuhan University of Technology, according to federal prosecutors in Boston, according to WSJ.
According to prosecutors, Lieber deliberately lied to defense department officials about his "foreign research collaborations."
According to prosecutors, Lieber deliberately lied to defense department officials about his "foreign research collaborations."
“a federal court unsealed indictments against Harvard professor and Chemistry Department Head Charles Lieber, along with two Chinese nationals.”
“In conjunction with the program, Mr. Lieber became a “strategic scientist” at Wuhan University of Technology, according to the complaint. For “significant periods” from 2012 to 2017, his contract called for a $50,000 a month salary on top of $150,000 in living expenses paid by WUT, it said. He was also awarded more than $1.5 million by WUT and the Chinese government to set up a research lab, it said.”
“The Trump Administration has made cracking down on Chinese academic and corporate espionage a priority, and has made several arrests of Chinese nationals working in critical roles funneling info back to China. But this is probably the most high-profile case to date, since one of the suspects is a pioneering American scientist.
Interestingly enough, not long after news of the arrests hit the press, another report surfaced claiming China had rejected President Trump's offer of assistance to contain the coronavirus - even as Wuhan is in desperate need of supplies.
Is that just a coincidence?”
Well, this may shed a light on the coronavirus epidemic origins.
Some of you may remember Borg technology from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Lieber has pioneered the biological/electronic interface.
I MUST read the corporate espionage story. It appears that the Chinese are actually paying for this technology instead of stealing it.
Lieber's technological contributions put him in the John Galt category. I haven't met Lieber, but he is unquestionably one of the top ten people in nanotech in the world.
Why would he get involved in a shady deal with the Chines then?
This may be a setup, framing him.
https://engineeringunleashed.com/card... and links therein.
It may be restricted only to faculty, but I know you can't see it unless you register at their site. You can certainly access
https://engineeringunleashed.com/mind... and
https://engineeringunleashed.com/EM-S...
Lieber, like many in academia, has chosen Dr. Stadler's path. For a while, I was going down that path, too, before I became a faculty member in 1998.
In 2007 when I applied to the MIS PhD program at UGA I was informed that they had only accepted students from China in the last 4 years because they had the highest GMAT scores. One week after I received my rejection letter it came out that the GMAT was compromised in China and had been for many years.
We have to understand that China is an enemy country and stop allowing this to happen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousan...
A list of the awardees is on Wikipedia. Like the now troubled Charles Lieber, T.W. Fraser Stoddart is certainly in the 20 people in nanotechnology. Mario Lanza, Hao Bai and Qi-qiang Wang are other nanochemists on the list that I recognize. Though I didn't recognize him, Tim Byrnes is also in nanotechnology. It looks like the Thousand Talents Program faculty selection is in a very narrow field - MINE!
Welcome to the State Science Institute, Dr. Stadler!
You don't get to be a department head at Harvard without producing a major achievement in your field. He certainly has, but did he have the right ethics? Or was he seduced to the "Dark Side"?
https://cen.acs.org/research-integrit...
http://cml.harvard.edu/research/image...
Now that I did a little more investigating, I remember seeing this story from many years ago:
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...
“We want to find a single virus before it finds you,” says Charles Lieber, Hyman Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University. Tests recently completed in his laboratory show that these unimaginably thin nanowires can sense and distinguish between viruses that cause flu, measles, and eye infections. Lieber believes future versions will be able to spot HIV, Ebola, SARS, West Nile, hepatitis, bird flu, and other dangerous viruses.
“Viruses are among the most important causes of human disease and are of increasing concern as agents for bioterrorism,” Lieber says. “Our work shows that nanoscale silicon wires can be configured as detectors that turn on or off in the presence of a single virus particle. Such detectors could be fashioned into arrays capable of sensing thousands of different viruses, ushering in a new era for diagnoses, biosafety, and quick response to viral outbreaks.” ....
"Surfaces of the nanowires, through which a minute current flows, hold specks of protein (antibodies) to which specific viruses bind. These antibodies, produced naturally by the immune system, can be attached to the surface of the nanowires, and they will, in turn, bind viruses. Such binding causes a change in current, which signals the presence of a virus or viruses, like a burglar alarm detecting intruders. ....
"Lieber’s team now plans to work on a larger detector, one that could sense up to 100 different viruses simultaneously. Such an array will make it more likely that the federal government and/or private companies will act to move this exciting new technology from a Harvard basement laboratory to a factory floor."
Looking at the caliber of the person it may be a value-for both-sides trade.
(Compare with persons with no attributes except pull being on the board of Ukrainian energy companies).
As in the Trump impeachment, it is important to remember that in America we have the "innocent until proven guilty" standard.
As described in 2016 in
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...
"The principle of “innocent until proven guilty” has been implemented across the Chinese judicial system, the Supreme People’s Court’s top official added, reported the China Daily."
That being said, it is quite surprising that only 1 in a 1000 defendants are found not guilty.
Critical reading of every "news" story with corroboration of the details is vital, as is analysis of the motives of the participants and publishers.
If I were starting Galt's Gulch, and I determined Lieber to be of appropriate character, his production level would have merited that he be invited to the Gulch.
Lieber is, like many faculty, someone who hires Chinese graduate students and postdocs. I haven't, but that isn't because I would not have done so on principle (One of my grad students was Taiwanese, but that's not the same.). A common view among faculty members is that, if we educate international students ourselves, then they will bring our values back with them to their home countries (if they go back) along with the technology they learned. I certainly share that view.
China is officially Communist, but in some ways according to many people that I have talked to, they are more enterprising than we are.
What this situation illustrates is one of Ayn Rand's most fundamental points. One cannot practice science and engineering without the proper philosophical basis in place. +1 for Ayn Rand ... again.