Two University of Kentucky professors and a staff research scientist responsible for significant research misconduct in a number of scholarly papers. Xianglin Shi and Zhuo Zhang and five additional staff members were laid off because they are supported by research grants that will be terminated.
Kentucky’s investigation found several examples of falsified or fabricated data and numerous irregularities in seven grant proposals and at least 13 scholarly papers sampled from the researchers’ work. The investigating committee also found some instances of what it called intentional efforts to deceive. Shi and Zhang, who are reportedly married, could not immediately be reached for comment. Their work focused on metal toxicity.