WASHINGTON-NSF Director Erich Bloch has administered a public wrist-slapping to the president of the State University of New York at Buffalo for material in its proposal for an Earthquake Engineering Research Center that was copied from another document on the subject.
"It's not plagiarism.' Bloch told members of the National Science Board at their recent meeting, "but it is copying without acknowledgement. I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill, but it was sloppy work and I think we should learn from the experience.' However. Board member Annelise Anderson remarked that Bloch's description of the episode "sounds like plagiarism in my book."
The Foundation's internal auditors judged that the Buffalo scientists "have been suitably chastised by the [extensive] publicity surrounding the incident," but they recommended that Bloch "publicly reinforce the standards of professional behavior" in a letter sent November 13 to SUNY-Buffalo President Steven Sample.
