Penn State Panel Finds Climate Researcher Did Not Falsify Data, but Inquiry Continues

[Nikki Stone1]

http://chronicle.com/article/Penn-State-Panel-Finds-Climate/63881/

February 3, 2010
Penn State Panel Finds Climate Researcher Did Not Falsify Data, but Inquiry Continues

By Jeffrey R. Young

A prominent climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University has been cleared of falsifying data and most accusations of scientific misconduct by a panel of university administrators, but the officials decided to look more closely into possible errant behavior.

The researcher, Michael E. Mann, is a key figure in the so-called Climategate scandal, in which computer hackers stole hundreds of private e-mail messages by researchers that suggested they had manipulated or exaggerated findings to support policy action related to global warming. Soon after the stolen e-mail messages became public, when the hackers posted them online, officials at Penn State began a formal inquiry into Mr. Mann's behavior. The final report on the investigation was released Wednesday morning.

Mr. Mann was cleared of three of the four charges of professional misconduct, as the administrators found insufficient evidence to further investigate those claims.

The university took the unusual step of making the personnel investigation public because of the intense public interest in the case and its implications for public trust in science, said Lisa Powers, a spokeswoman for the university. Mr. Mann agreed to make the report public.

"While a perception has been created in the weeks after the ... e-mails were made public that Dr. Mann has engaged in the suppression or falsification of data, there is no credible evidence that he ever did so, and certainly not while at Penn State," the report says...

[Nikki Stone1]

1. I guess no one cares that at least one researcher has been cleared.

:shrug:

[Jim__]

2. That's good news.

Let's hope the MSM trumpets this as loudly as they trumpeted the "scandal."

[Nikki Stone1]

3. We could help by keeping it on the front page today

I think this is crucial. A lot of people bought the climate change as a scam routine.

[Jim__]

4. K & R.