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Purdue University will pay the federal government $737,400 to settle allegations that a researcher falsified data, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana.
The Nov. 17 release said that from 2014 to 2020, Alice C. Chang—formerly Chun-Ju Chang and formerly an associate professor in Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine—“falsified and fabricated data” in two published papers and 17 grant applications to the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Army.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the NIH, banned Chang from contracting with any U.S. agency for a decade and required her to request corrections to her papers.
The DHHS Office of Research Integrity says on its website that it found Chang had committed research misconduct in grant applications by reusing data, “with or without manipulation, to represent unrelated experiments … in three hundred eighty-four (384) figure panels.”
In a Wednesday email to Inside Higher Ed, Tim Doty, a Purdue spokesman, said DHHS notified the university in mid-2018, “calling into question the authenticity of some results” in Chang’s submissions to federal funding agencies. “Purdue University cooperated and thoroughly investigated the alleged misconduct,” Doty wrote. “When Purdue’s investigation was nearing conclusion in mid-2019, Dr. Chang left the university.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Purdue “cooperated and thoroughly investigated.” Doty wrote that he didn’t have information Wednesday on whether the university asked Chang to resign or she left of her own choice, and Inside Higher Ed was unable to locate her.
“Based on its investigation, Purdue agreed that the funding was not deserved and should be returned,” Doty wrote.
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