WASHINGTON

Bernard Fisher, a cancer researcher at the University of Pittsburgh who sued after he was dismissed and falsely accused of scientific misconduct, has won $2.75 million in damages and an apology from the university. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) will pay $300,000 towards his legal fees as part of the settlement.

The agreement ends a battle that began in 1994, when the government charged Fisher with scientific misconduct and the NCI removed him from his job as head of a major breast cancer study. The case was highlighted by hearings held in the US Congress at the time by Representative John Dingell (Democrat, Michigan) (see Nature 368, 679; 679; 1994).

Fisher sued the government and the university, arguing that his constitutional rights to due process and scientific freedom had been violated. In February he was exonerated by government investigators of charges that he knowingly published research containing falsified data. The settlement of Fisher's suit, which was to have gone to trial on Tuesday (2 September), was announced by Fisher and the University of Pittsburgh last week.

Fisher, who is 78, said he was “pleased and satisfied” by the settlement. “It was really done for all scientists and not just for me, because the kinds of things that happened to me, all other scientists are vulnerable to,” he says.