… administrators at the University of Copenhagen have – it’s claimed – been overlooking Milena Penkowa’s scientific fraud (misuse of grant money, irreproducible experimental results, etc.) for almost ten years.
It’s a strange story. Apparently after her doctoral thesis failed, the dean got a bunch of people outside the university to pass it.
Questions over Penkowa’s research began at least as early as 2002 with suspicions over her doctoral thesis. For instance, Sørensen says, Penkowa claimed to have performed experiments on around 1700 rats over several months. The committee rejected her thesis.
According to Sørensen, the university’s then dean of faculty Ralf Hemmingsen intervened and sought an external review of Penkowa’s thesis by two other researchers. They were critical of the committee’s decision, arguing that there was no clear evidence of research misconduct. Penkowa resubmitted her thesis to a different committee of researchers not based at the University of Copenhagen and passed, Sørensen says.
So at the University of Copenhagen you can pass your thesis by scraping together a bunch of people from somewhere to say it’s okay?
Here’s a letter from a bunch of scientists calling for an investigation.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:11PM
Margaret, you got it mixed up.
At all serious universities, a doctoral thesis, as well as a Ph.d thesis is assessed by a committee with a majority of people outside the university where the research has been done, and where the person is employed. This is also the case at your university. Else nepotism would be all to obvious.
Who assessed your thesis? Your colleagues and associates for the last decade, or professors in your research area but from outside your institution (in your wording = “a bunch of people from somewhere”)?
January 9th, 2011 at 1:19PM
Peter: Yes, there are always outside scholars included in doctoral examination committees; but this is very different from what the article I quote describes: A dean’s intervention which involves overturning the original failure (I assume there were also outside scholars included in the original dissertation defense) by bringing in external reviewers (how were these chosen?), and then a decision (the dean’s, I assume) to have her retake the defense with a committee entirely made up of people unconnected with her university. I don’t know how things are done in Denmark (I have only the article I quote to go on) but the idea of an entirely outside committee for your defense would be bizarre in the American context. It’s not nepotistic to be examined by – among others – people who know your work best.
January 15th, 2011 at 4:30AM
Margaret has it right: The original doctoral thesis was turned down (I believe the first committe was all-Danish, but from different universities). Then the dean Hemmingsen, for the first time in Danish university history, decided to overturn the decision and appoint a new committee for a re-evaluation of the thesis. If my memory serves me right, this second committee consisted of Swedes. The thesis was now accepted.
Some of the concerns raised by the original committee (the most grave being the claimed experiments on 1000+ rats, a number any scientist with real lab experience will tell you is ridiculous, outside of big pharma) were being handled by the dean personally. Ie. Penkowa was allowed to submit her explanation for conflicting reports of where these extensive animal studies had actually taken place and he personally decided that her explanations made sense. Even though she changed her explanation repeatedly, first explaining that they took place in Copenhagen, then at Barcelona University, and then at a private company in Spain whose name she won’t give to media journalists today. 1000 rats… come on.
Horrible and shameful story for Danish science and for Copenhagen University! Please bear in mind that this one bad apple is not in any way representative for the rest of the research being conducted in Denmark. Best regards
January 15th, 2011 at 7:54AM
Danish passerby: Many thanks for that additional information, and for the important reminder that – if the allegations are proved true – this is one rogue scientist, and doesn’t reflect on the rest of Danish research.
February 12th, 2011 at 4:19AM
Question:
‘So at the University of Copenhagen you can pass your thesis by scraping together a bunch of people from somewhere to say it’s okay?’
Answer:
Yes, but you have to be a woman to pull the stunt.
February 27th, 2011 at 6:19PM
[…] on the Milena Penkowa science fraud story (background here): [Former science minister Helge] Sander contacted several of university staff members to tell them […]