After a five-year investigation, the U.S. Office of Research Integrity has found 21 instances of scientific misconduct in the doctoral work of Bengu Sezen, a former Ph.D. student in the Columbia chemistry department.
The ORI report, which was released on Monday, found that Sezen committed multiple ethical violations in her doctoral research at Columbia on carbon-hydrogen bond activation.
Along with the report, the ORI banned Sezen from working for any U.S. government agency or holding any advisory position with the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps for five years.
In 2005, Sezen’s doctoral adviser, Dalibor Sames—now an associate chemistry professor—made waves in the scientific community when he retracted seven articles authored by Sezen because other members of Sames’ laboratory group were unable to replicate Sezen’s results.
Shortly thereafter, Columbia launched an investigation independent of the ORI’s and determined in 2006 that Sezen had fabricated data and plagiarized parts of her papers.
“The official finding of the federal Office of Research Integrity at the Department of Health and Human Services has affirmed Columbia’s investigation of research misconduct in this matter. The University is in the process of requesting the Trustees to formally revoke Ms. Sezen’s Ph.D,” University spokesperson Robert Hornsby said in a statement.
Sames was unavailable for comment, and Columbia chemistry department chair Colin Nuckolls declined to comment. Sezen also could not be reached.
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