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A researcher who claimed a blockbuster discovery of a superconductor that worked at room temperature but then saw the article retracted is no longer employed by the University of Rochester, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Superconductors conduct electricity without losing energy, making them a valuable research focus.
The university didn’t provide Inside Higher Ed an interview Wednesday about Professor Ranga Dias’s departure. In an emailed statement, the institution said a report “concluded that he engaged in research misconduct while a faculty member here,” but the university didn’t say whether he was fired or he resigned voluntarily.
“Dias is no longer a University of Rochester employee, nor does he have any research activity connected to the university,” the statement said. “In the past year, the university completed a fair and thorough investigation—conducted by a panel of nationally and internationally known physicists—into data reliability concerns within several retracted papers in which Dias served as a senior and corresponding author.”
The private university didn’t provide a copy of the final report. Inside Higher Ed was unable to reach Dias.
The Wall Street Journal reported that a university investigation found Dias manipulated data in four studies—including the now-retracted Nature study claiming discovery of the room-temperature semiconductor—plus plagiarized in a National Science Foundation grant proposal. The newspaper wrote that, in August, university president Sarah C. Mangelsdorf recommended that the institution’s Board of Trustees terminate Dias’s employment.
