Schön scandal

Jan Hendrik Schön ( born 1970 ) is a German physicist. He released in 2002 a scandal over falsified research results, followed by a debate on the responsibilities of co- authors and reviewers of scientific papers. Schön's research areas were nanotechnology and solid state physics.

Career

Beautifully presented in 1988 to finish his schooling at the Bundesgymnasium from Feldkirch in Austria. He studied physics at the University of Konstanz and acquired there in 1993 his diploma. 1997 doctorate Jan Hendrik Schön at the prestigious photovoltaic experts Ernst Bucher on the utilization of copper gallium diselenide solar cell manufacturing.

The end of 1997 he moved to the Bell Laboratories in the working group by Bertram Batlogg (now ETH Zurich ) and Christian Kloc and conducted research on nanotechnology with organic semiconductors.

In 2001 he published on average every eight days a technical article, 17 of them in the prestigious journals Nature and Science. He announced several breakthrough results, including high temperature superconductor fullerene base and a transistor, which consists of only one molecule. The Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart intended to make him the youngest director to date.

2011 Beautiful was an engineer employed by a chemical company.

Allegations and consequences

In 2001, some physicists doubt as to various publications yous began to express, because they the measurement data contained therein to accurately published in the sense of accuracy and some of Schön's assertions generally accepted physical findings contradicted. In -depth studies was subsequently discovered that Schön had published partially identical series of measurements to completely different experiments. In addition, he created " measurements " by computer simulation, but this was not detected until after the announcement of the other fakes.

On September 21, 2002, a commission of inquiry appointed by the Bell Laboratories concluded that Schön had been guilty of falsifying data of scientific misconduct in 16 publications.

Lucent Technologies ( owner company of Bell Laboratories) then dismissed him without notice. This was the first case of scientific fraud have become known at Bell Labs. The Max Planck Society decided not to appeal, several awards were returned (Braunschweig Prize in 2001 ) or withdrawn ( Otto Klung Weberbank Prize 2001). Several articles have been partially withdrawn against the will of yous. The journal Science drew on 31 October 2002 a total of eight written by Schön Publications back, the journal Nature on 5 March 2003, seven such publications.

Schön acknowledged that the data were flawed in many of these works. He claimed that the confusion had arisen by accident. Still, he admitted, " adapted " to have certain data so that it provided a clearer proof of what he had observed in his experiments. He is still the fact that his experiments were functional.

Scientists at the University of Delft and at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center have since performed similar experiments, but the results could not confirm.

Fake publications

The following publications have been exposed as a fake:

• JH Schön, S. Berg, C. Kloc, B. Batlogg: ambipolar pentacene field -effect transistors and inverters, Science 287, 1022 ( 2000)
• JH Schön, Ch Kloc, RC Haddon, B. Batlogg: A superconducting field -effect switch, Science 288, 656 (2000)
• JH Schön, Ch Kloc, B. Batlogg: Fractional quantum Hall effect in organic molecular semiconductors, Science 288, 2338 (2000)
• JH Schön, Ch Kloc, A. Dodabala -pur, B. Batlogg: An organic solid state injection laser, Science 289, 599 (2000)
• JH Schön, A. Dodabalapur, Ch Kloc, B. Batlogg: A light-emitting field - effect transistor, Science 290, 963 (2000)
• JH Schön, Ch Kloc, HY Hwang, B. Batlogg: Josephson junctions with tunable weak links, Science 292, 252 (2001)
• JH Schön, Ch Kloc, B. Batlogg: High-temperature superconductivity in lattice -expanded C60, Science 293, 2432 (2001)
• JH Schön, H. Meng, Z. Bao: Field -effect modulation of the conductance of single molecules, Science 294, 2138 (2001)
• JH Schön, Ch Kloc, B. Batlogg: Superconductivity at 52K in hole - doped C60. Nature 408, 549-552 ( 2000).
• JH Schön et al.: Gate -induced superconductivity in a solution -processed organic polymer film-. Nature 410, 189-192 ( 2001).
• JH Schön, H. Meng, Z. Bao: Self- assembled monolayer organic field -effect transistors. Nature 413, 713-716 (2001).
• JH Schön et al: Superconductivity in single crystals of the fullerene C70. Nature 413, 831-833 (2001).
• JH Schön et al: Superconductivity in CaCuO2 as a result of field -effect doping. Nature 414, 434-436 (2001).

Withdrawing doctorate

In June 2004, the University of Konstanz Nice withdrew doctoral degrees because of " shameful behavior ". At this step was unusual that the integrity of the thesis is not even questioned, but rather one has been used up to that point often overlooked passage in Baden-Württemberg university law by which the title can also be withdrawn " if the owner later by his has proven behavior of the leadership of the degree as unworthy ". To this end, the University of Schön's misconduct led to a researcher in the United States. Schön was a legal case against the revocation of the doctorate degree, but ultimately succumbed to the Federal Administrative Court, which dismissed the application on July 31, 2013 final.