She gets sued a lot, so I guess that takes up a lot of her time… But as to what she contributes to the university, it’s hard to tell.
Her webpage tells us she teaches “in” one course every spring. Does this actually mean she has less than a one-course load every year?
As for her scientific research, she’s been dealing with a dragged-out lawsuit from a former student — and she’s been losing every element of it — for years, costing Stanford a good deal of time and money in lawyers.
She grabbed credit for patented work much of which he seems to have done; she subsequently plagiarized parts of his dissertation for a different patent application.
When he tried to deal with all of this in a direct way, calling her, she left the following phone message:
You have no case, and I really don’t want to spend time on this.
But what does Professor Calos spend time on?
Oh right. Lawsuits.
August 13th, 2009 at 8:57AM
Hmm…
From her website it appears that she is involved with stem cells.
Here is how Chris Williams of The Associated Press began a story last week on a research investigation into stem cell research:
[http://wcco.com/wireapnewsmn/U.of.Minn.2.1118903.html]
“The University of Minnesota has launched its third internal investigation in two years into allegations of research misconduct….”
Williams continued,
“The Minnesota situation is also unusual, Caplan said, in that its researchers have been getting special scrutiny from New Scientist. He suspects there would be more questions of sloppiness or fraud at other universities if more outsiders were watching.
“There is particular pressure on scientists working in the stem cell field, with its mix of politics, the prestige of breakthroughs and the potential profits from patents.
"’I really can’t think of too many areas that are more set up for somebody to cut corners than stem cell work,’ he said.”
_______________
The Caplan is Art Caplan, a bio-ethhicist at UPenn, who formerly was at Minnesota.
And so it goes..
August 13th, 2009 at 10:47AM
This one really does look like an odd case, UD. Now we have heavy-hitting faculty who teach a much reduced course load; most active science departments do. The value of these faculty comes from their research, the overhead returns generated from their funding, the prestige and recognition reflected on the department as whole by their activities. So they tend to be full professors, often chaired, who have lengthy success in publications and funding.
Calos doesn’t seem to fit that. She’s an associate professor, for instance. Odd that a mere associate would have a reduced teaching load, and that in an advanced specialty topic only. And her publication record isn’t all that impressive. Something is definitely up, there.
Having sniffed out COI, UD is going after intellectual property (IP) rights problems. Good for you! It’s funny to me because IP was the other big issue we wrestled with in our Faculty Senate Research and Service committee recently.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:09PM
Not too be too cynical.
But she has a gold-plated pedigree. Oxford, "Wally" …
The type that is guaranteed to bring in the research bucks. And the overhead.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:10PM
ps. Whoops!
To be or not to be ?
Not to be too cynical…