That's misconduct, eh?

Written byBob Grant

| 1 min read

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A researcher in linkurl:Canada;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/15054/ has been living high on the government hog, spending thousands on toys and personal effects with federal money meant to fund his research. According to a linkurl:story;http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=a6179ad9-ea00-4bce-b5be-1b2fa04427a2 from the Canwest News Service that ran in the __Vancouver Sun__ yesterday, the scientist spent more than $20,000 on top-of-the-line linkurl:cell phones,;http://www.the-scientist.com/2007/9/1/25/1/ plasma televisions, 19-inch computer monitors, a home entertainment system, and even chrome exhaust pipes and customized aluminum wheels for his car from early 2003 to May 2005. Neither the researcher, his university, nor his field of research were named by Canada's linkurl:Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council;http://www.nserc.gc.ca/index.htm (NSERC), which awarded the scientist about $300,000 in the past five or six years in addition to a multi-year grant worth between $25,000 to $35,000 a year. The university has apparently returned more than $21,000 to NSERC, and the researcher sent back $3,000 to other granting agencies that were financing his work. The researcher and the university have not reached a settlement agreement, and the case is still "pending" with the linkurl:Royal Canadian Mounted Police,;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/home/53203/ an NSERC spokesperson told the __Vancouver Sun__. No word on whether or not the scientist is still employed by the university.

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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