In the three years since NIH Director Francis Collins first warned institutions to be alert to the possibility that investigators had inappropriate, and undisclosed, ties to foreign governments, the number of agency-supported “scientists of concern” has grown to more than 500.
Song Guo Zheng, formerly with Ohio State University, was sentenced this spring to 37 months in prison and required to make payments of nearly $4 million due to support from Chinese organizations; he is the first to receive a prison term that exceeds a few months or time served.[1]