Bell Labs fires researcher after committee finds 'fraudulent work'

A star researcher in electronics at Bell Labs has been fired after an outside review committee found he falsified experimental data.

The committee concluded Jan Hendrik Schon made up or altered data at least 16 times between 1998 and 2001.

The move is the first case of scientific fraud in the 77-year history of the Nobel Prize-winning laboratory.

Bell Labs is the research arm of Lucent Technologies, previously part of AT&T.

The research involved work by Mr Schon, 32, and other scientists in the fields of superconductivity, molecular electronics and molecular crystals.

The committee cleared about 20 other researchers from Bell Labs and other institutions who worked on the research or helped write reports on it.

News source: Ananova - Bell Labs fires researcher after committee finds 'fraudulent work'