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Published online 26 October 2009 | Nature 461, 1185 (2009) | doi:10.1038/4611185a
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University tightens oversight of sensitive research
Conviction prompts rethink of data rules.
University administrators are looking to sharpen their monitoring of export violations, officials said last week at a meeting of the National Council of University Research Administrators in Washington DC.
The move comes in the wake of the first US conviction, last year, of a university professor for trafficking military-sensitive information.
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actually this goes to the heart of the very principles of university science (not custom commercial science), that data and methods are feely shared to allow replication,verification or falsification, and not just amongst a small, select or self-selected group. Unless this was merely "technology" of course and not "science".Unfortunately, and especially in the applied sciences, the distinction between "science" and "technology" is not always easily defined and the waters are further muddied by universities taking on a mix of research and development in the public and private (commercial/government sensitive) sectors, many if not all of which inevitably have or will eventually have cross connections. A veritable minefield and plenty more prospective casualties waiting...
The information in question was neither sensitive nor classified. It was unclassified research related to the development of prototypes of plasma actuators for which Dr. Roth already held the patent(s), funded by the Air Farce. The test bed was a civilian UAV, not a weapons system, yet the government claimed that it was "ITAR" controlled, and that the government's determination that the technology was ITAR controlled was not subject to review by the court. At trial, the only proof of this element of the offense was the statement of the conclusion by Licensing Officers that the technology was ITAR controlled. Few people in academia recognize that any technology related to a defense article is ITAR controlled and requires an export license in order to be released to a foreign person, even if that foreign person is physically located in the U.S., as were the foreign graduate students in this case. Fewer still realize that the agency that administers ITAR, the Dept. of State Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, claims that all of its actions are not subject to the Administrative Procedures Act and therefore are not subject to judicial review. (The 1946 legislative history of the APA clearly is contrary to this false and fraudulent claim).
Dr. Roth had no creditable warning prior to being arrested that his research was ITAR controlled, yet an ambitious and anti-academic Assistant US Attorney in Knoxville was free to pursue Dr. Roth without adult supervision. The lesson to academia should be that no amount of procedures and training will save you from an ambitious prosecutor who wants to trade your freedom in order to advance his career, and who has no effective judicial control. The lesson is clear: Don't do research for the Department of Defense or any nartional security agency if you value your freedom and career.
Note also that there is a similar set of rules for purely commercial technology known as the Export Administration Regulations which also require an export license for the "deemed export" of such commercial technology by the release to a foreign person, no matter where located (15 CFR 734.2). This is why so many companies are moving R&D offshore.
i am not a US cirtizen but i have worked as a an experimental physicist in US institutions, Universities as well as labs. for a total period of about 5 years. if i venture to suggest something it will be to encourage academic freedom in the universities and any works/studies of defence/secret nature should be immediately transferred to Government labs., instead of being censored in the university system. Freedom is at the centre of innovation and novelty in scientific research. Any sensitive research from the Government point of view should be shifted to the Government lab. as soon as it is so found, instead of curtailing the freedom of teachers and students at the University. The onus for this lies with the Government's serveillance agencies and not with the management of the University concerned.
i am not a US cirtizen but i have worked as a an experimental physicist in US institutions, Universities as well as labs. for a total period of about 5 years. if i venture to suggest something it will be to encourage academic freedom in the universities and any works/studies of defence/secret nature should be immediately transferred to Government labs., instead of being censored in the university system. Freedom is at the centre of innovation and novelty in scientific research. Any sensitive research from the Government point of view should be shifted to the Government lab. as soon as it is so found, instead of curtailing the freedom of teachers and students at the University. The onus for this lies with the Government's serveillance agencies and not with the management of the University concerned.
System should be able to differentiate between intentional & unintentional disclosure of the organisational scientific secret.Professors/ Academitian usually help other specially students which some time may go against rule.So there is need of tution for acdemician in this regard.Certainly intentional activity should be heavely punished.
System should be able to differentiate between intentional & unintentional disclosure of the organisational scientific secret.Professors/ Academitian usually help other specially students which some time may go against rule.So there is need of tution for acdemician in this regard.Certainly intentional activity should be heavely punished.