A professor embroiled in an academic fraud scandal yesterday denied wrongdoing and said that the money he received from an alleged accomplice was to purchase a home and had nothing to do with graft.
National Taiwan University (NTU) professor Kuo Min-liang (郭明良), who has been fielding accusations related to forged research since last month, held a news conference in Taipei yesterday to speak publicly for the first time about the allegations.
Kuo has also been accused of accepting payments from NTU Hospital doctor Yen Men-luh (嚴孟祿) in exchange for letting other academics be listed as coauthors on papers written by his research team.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Kuo yesterday said that accusations against his old friend Yen caused Kuo “deeply felt pain,” and that Yen had lent him money to buy a home during an economic downturn.
Kuo said Yen had never used work coauthored with himself to forward his career, adding that he was unclear how the relationship could be seen as one of quid pro quo.
Kuo said he “has not forged research, has not been in hiding, has not sold papers and refused to be labeled guilty before an investigation,” adding that he is “very sorry for causing conflict in the academic community and wasting public resources.”
He has not been hiding, but preparing materials requested for the investigation into his case, he said, adding that he has worked at the university for 25 years and he has always been trusting of his students.
When suspicions were first raised on Oct. 20 about work published by NTU post-doctorate researcher Cha Shih-ting (查詩婷), who was part of his research team, he trusted her explanations, Kuo said, adding that he approached an academic journal on Oct. 26 about correcting the errors.
Kuo said he only began to question Cha’s honesty after PubPeer — an online academic forum that allows scientists to search for publications and engage in anonymous discussions — exposed the work as a forgery on Nov. 2.
“At the time I half-believed and half-doubted her,” Kuo said. “On Nov. 4, I made inquiries with the journal about corrections to the article. On Nov. 6, I reported the issue to the school.”
When he realized that the work was a forgery he requested it be withdrawn, Kuo said, adding that he subsequently resigned his post feeling that he had failed in his supervisory duties.
Kuo denied claims that more than 10 papers produced under his supervision were forged, saying that only the two papers Cha worked on in 2008 and this year were fraudulent.
“Our laboratory has published 117 papers and only two were found to be forged. Is that a ‘collection of forgeries?’” Kuo asked. “If the media wants to call the 100 or so doctorate and post-doctorate students I have supervised a ‘fraud ring’ then they are slandering the legitimate 99 percent of the students.”
Kuo said that he comes from a low-income background and put himself through school, adding that even after he became an NTU lecturer he did not have a home of his own to house his family.
Kuo said Yen lent him the money to buy a house and told him to take his time repaying it, adding that he was shocked that someone would misrepresent the loan as graft and send the paper trail to the media.
“The papers I coauthored with Yen were published in 2005 and 2011, six years apart. How could they possibly be used by Yen for advancement?” Kuo said. “Those two papers have no significance at all for Yen.”
Kuo said he hoped the media would not label him guilty before a proper investigation has been conducted, adding that he had already admitted his supervisory failure and handed in his resignation.
“This must be the first such request for a resignation from an academic position in the history of Taiwan,” Kuo said, adding that he would submit to an investigation by his peers and the judicial authorities.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS