{"id":2496,"date":"2025-08-10T06:19:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T05:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=2496"},"modified":"2025-08-10T11:08:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T10:08:02","slug":"ucl-unethical-conduct-labs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=2496","title":{"rendered":"UCL — Unethical Conduct Labs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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UCL<\/a> has long and distinguished record of failure to deal with bullying and harassment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, Dr Christopher Backhouse, a particle physicist, was found to have carried out a prolonged harassment campaign against a fellow physicist Dr Erica Smith, as reported in The Guardian<\/em> here.<\/a> Dr Backhouse’s actions included: creating fake Twitter accounts in Dr Smith\u2019s name; posting fabricated pornographic images and false claims portraying her as a sex worker; publishing her real phone number, leading to numerous unsolicited sexual advances from strangers; signing her up for far-right hate groups and fetish websites; arranging unwanted deliveries like adult diapers to her home; sending death threats and attempting to deceive police into dispatching an armed response. UCL did nothing, so Dr Smith took legal action, resulting in the following statement in open court.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, Dr Emma Chapman<\/a>, then a PhD student, lodged a formal complaint against UCL astrophysicist, Dr Felipe Abdalla, for ongoing harassment, some of it occurring after she returned from maternity leave with postnatal depression. The process dragged on for nearly 21 months, causing significant stress. UCL initially offered a settlement that included a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), which Dr Chapman bravely refused as reported in The Standard<\/em> here<\/a>. Eventually, she settled for financial redress, accompanied by a confidentiality waiver rather than an NDA \u2014 meaning she could speak out about the case. It was an important milestone in the campaign to ban NDAs which is coming to fruition next year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another then PhD student in the same astrophysics group, Dr Arthur Loureiro<\/a>, has described UCL as a toxic place<\/a>. In a letter posted to Twitter\/X, he wrote of his experiences<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Unfortunately, the University continues to hide under constantly changing staff, bureaucratic procedures and policies that have only had the effect of protecting the perpetrator. Although there are excellent astrophysicists and cosmologists and others at UCL who are absolutely brilliant, fabulous people that have stood for what is right, the University itself refuses to deal with any situation like this in a meaningful way. When the going gets tough, I feel they take the easy path]. UCL’s “Report and Support” looks like nothing but a PR stunt: I reported, but they did not support. The “Zero Tolerance Policy” once on all the walls at UCL is, in practice (and I quote an email I received from a UCL HR staff) “a very high threshold”. [Dr Arthur Loureiro, posted here <\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Dr Abdalla was allowed to continue working at UCL for a further 8 years till 2023, while Dr Backhouse resigned and never faced any disciplinary action at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remarkably, UCL isn\u2019t just failing on bullying and harassment \u2014 it\u2019s leading the way in enabling and whitewashing scientific fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The geneticist Professor David Latchman<\/a> and his lab underwent investigations in 2014\u201315. There was a disciplinary hearing in 2018. Two expert panels found evidence of research fraud in a significant number of papers (image cloning and duplication of figures) produced between 1990 and 2013. Latchman himself was not found to have intentionally committed fraud, but his lab oversight was described as \u201creckless,<\/em>\u201d supporting the finding of misconduct<\/a>. At least six papers were retracted and two corrected. No formal disciplinary action was taken against Latchman himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By now, Latchman was prospering mightily in a career where “reckless oversight<\/em>” is the norm — university administration. He was appointed Master of Birkbeck College from 2003 to 2023, and then transitioned to become Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of London. Earlier this year, Prof Wendy Thomson, the current Vice Chancellor of London, was suspended after allegations of creating a \u201cculture of bullying and fear”<\/a>. Prof Latchman is now the (Acting) Vice Chancellor of the University of London — a remarkable turnaround!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to 2025, the pharmacologist Prof Gareth Williams<\/a> now faces multiple allegations of … shall we say … “reckless oversight<\/em>“. In March 2025, investigators uncovered numerous cases<\/a> where data, especially spectra and microscopy images, were duplicated or manipulated across several papers co-authored by Williams and his former postdoc, Prof. Deng-Guang Yu of the University of Shanghai. These issues were first flagged on PubPeer by Sholto David<\/a> and Fabian Wittmers<\/a>. In response to the mounting evidence, Williams expressed his dismay, stating:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“I have been following the comments on PubPeer, and have been shocked, angered and appalled by the issues […] there can be no explanation for this other than systemic fraud.” (Prof Gareth Williams, quoted on ‘For Better Science’)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This week’s For Better Science<\/a> brought more news of a fresh batch of troubling papers by Williams, this time co-authored with a different collaborator, Professor Li-Min Zhu of Donghua University, but with the same old problems. There are now over 30 papers by Williams listed on Pubpeer<\/a> with issues, usually image manipulation or (the admitted) systemic fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of now, there has been no statement from UCL regarding any formal investigation or disciplinary action concerning Professor Williams. However, we imagine he’s not too worried. UCL has established procedures for hushing things up. And he can always enter university administration where his gifts for “reckless oversight<\/em>” will be rapidly rewarded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes it is difficult to find the right words for the state of UK academia …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image is of the Wilkins Building, University College London, Gower Street, Bloomsbury, London, England. The photo credit belongs to Steve Cadman<\/a> and it is licensed under Creative Commons here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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UCL has long and distinguished record of failure to deal with bullying and harassment. In 2021, Dr Christopher Backhouse, a particle physicist, was found to have carried out a prolonged harassment campaign against a fellow physicist Dr Erica Smith, as reported in The Guardian here. Dr Backhouse’s actions included: creating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2496"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2530,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496\/revisions\/2530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}