Antonello Bonci, the former scientific director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, resigned from the agency in August after being investigated for sexual misconduct with trainees, Science reports. However, in announcing Bonci’s departure in an email, NIDA Director Nora Vokow did not hint of any wrongdoing, instead informing staff at the time that Bonci would assume the role of president of an addiction research center in Florida.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) sources tell Science that Bonci went on sabbatical in late 2018 in order to remove him from the line of supervision for a trainee with whom he was in a relationship. However, a NIDA scientist later filed a complaint alleging that Bonci assigned projects and resources to the trainee while on sabbatical, and that he had also “sexually targeted” a different trainee in the past. NIH policy strongly discourages intimate relationships in which one partner has professional ...
