What happened to me
I was a tenured professor who had one of the most productive research groups in the world. left Duke in 2024. I've been quiet but some have wondered what happened to me.
I was a tenured professor at Duke University’s Medical School and had one of the most productive research labs in the country. I published over 200 peer-reviewed papers with h-index of 95. Arguably for a while, I had one of the most productive research groups in the country studying metabolism and nutrition with advances in technology development, cancer origins, epigenetics, metabolic physiology and others. My research has not been as productive as of the past few years. This is what happened to me.
In 2019, a postdoctoral research fellow and a PhD student working with me were having a conflict about the authorship on a paper. The postdoc previously agreed to work with a student on the study which was designed and overseen by me – there were over 10 people involved in the study. The student wanted more credit for the time she was spending. We made a deal that the student would take a lesser authorship position in exchange for being the lead author of a review in a high profile journal I was invited to write.
The postdoc became accusatory towards me of favoring the student. She was often emotional at work and further dealing with personal issues in her life. The postdoc was getting aggravated with the student, with me, as well as the rest of the group members who were siding with the student. All along, I was still strongly supporting the postdoc for her career advancement. I had given her older grants I wrote for reference to write her own NIH grant applications and wrote a supportive if not decorated reference letter for her mentored grant application to continue work in my lab and transition to a faculty position soon.
Meanwhile NIH was scrutinizing Duke at the time for their handling of research fraud inside the medical school. Curiously, the administrators at the center of these scandals such as Mary Klotman and Sally Kornbluth were getting promotions and making big advances in their careers. Duke had had several egregious research fraud cases. When NIH flagged the postdoc’s mentored grant application for having overlap with my previous grants, she had a meeting with the department chair Donald McDonnell and Colin Duckett a vice dean and head of basic science research at the medical school. I wasn’t aware of the meeting.
McDonnell had personal issues with me for some time. He was into ingratiating talk and presenting a smooth exterior. I preferred to engage with those with whom I could have a more substantial conversation. I also found it unsettling how in private settings he would gossip and put others down who were enjoying success. His science I found overhyped and usually hyperbolic. He often claimed cures for cancer based on little to no evidence. At numerous points, I was sensing friction from him over my research getting attention. So during my time at Duke, I would interact with him if I had to.
Duckett was an ex scientist now pursuing full time administration as the head of basic science at the Duke School of Medicine. I was familiar with the field of apoptosis (an area of cell biology involving cell death) where he used to work. I knew the work that earlier established his career was highly questionable. I had only talked to him very briefly on a couple occasions. When I tried to engage him about science, he would take a defensive tone so I stopped.
At first glance, this sounds mundane and perhaps not even worthy of mention. This happened however in the midst of some movement or awakening in the academic sciences about the purported inequities and power imbalances in research labs. Duke was sending out consistent public messaging about bullying, oppressors, power imbalances, etc. Its new Dean Mary Klotman and its Provost Sally Kornbluth who was close to Duckett and McDonnell where we all worked in the same department were at the center of this messaging.
So after this postdoc met with the Duke administrators, I was told that there are concerns my lab environment is “oppressive” and its culture needed to be assessed. Ominous letters were sent to me by McDonnell and Duckett with Duke’s legal counsel copied.
I was subjected to an investigation they called a “lab organization review”. I was told it would take a week or so and it would result in some helpful suggestions to improve the lab environment. Instead, it went on for months. Investigators were retained to interview students, staff and others associated with me. There were hours upon hours of interviews in attempts to elicit unflattering statements about me. Positive statements about me and anything potentially exculpatory was either ignored, downplayed, or manipulated. My private emails and other communications were read with the same intent. Their lawyers were actively monitoring me. A hiring freeze was placed on my lab. I was told I could not take on any new students. The finances of my lab were audited with threats of more audits.
At the end, I met with an investigator who told me he didn’t see anything particularly unusual about the lab culture. He said it seemed like I had one unhappy person. I later received an investigative report that shockingly created a narrative of me as some sort of tyrant. It was an insulting, highly offensive negative portrayal. There was no mention of misconduct but it did say I may not align with Duke’s values. However it only had some mild recommendations for me to get management training and improve communication.
They sent the report to me and did not follow up for some time while my lab was still under their sanctions. I asked to know whether I could resume my work. During one meeting, Duckett was raising his voice at me insinuating that I am a bully while I was being quiet. At another, Duckett was invading my physical space to intimidate me while I was quiet. McDonnell and Ann Brown, a university administrator who was publicly promising to reign in unprofessional behavior watched with amusement. I was placed on administrative leave -- first paid then unpaid, banned from the campus, registered with the campus police, and forced to submit to a debilitating psychiatric exam by a person trained to evaluate forensic psychopathic behavior. Meanwhile, my grants were frozen. Some were eventually terminated and others given to McDonnell who gladly accepted the free research funds. After all of this, they required for my employment that I sign something which contained a series of admissions to false statements and indefinite stipulations that would be impossible to uphold. This effectively eliminated my employment.
Only after litigating and even after the trauma they caused me, I was able to hold on to my lab for a few years until 2024. I continued to publish papers with the goal of trying to get a new position. I even began applying for grants again and received a couple awards. But my lab and research program was already disseminated. Most people had left and research that takes years to complete was lost. On campus, faculty and students viewed me with a hovering dark cloud. They would spread rumors that I would hear only indirectly and would act in passive aggressive ways such as not inviting me to events, or removing me from their graduate programs or training grants for unclear reasons. My research productivity was a shell of what it used to be.
Altogether, Duke had spent millions disrupting my research lab and I had lost years of work. These are administrators with mid to high 6 or 7 figure salaries paid to do this.
While this was occurring, I had obviously been looking for other positions. My goal of course was to leave Duke asap. At the time this was happening, I felt confident I could get another position. I regularly received interest from schools such as Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Columbia, MD Anderson etc. This ranged from initial interest, interviews, housing visits and even promises of job offers. Each of these prospective positions would disappear and I would encounter either ghosting or obvious pretext for any negative decisions. Sometimes, institutions would string me along with multiple visits and promises of a position for over a year.
On one occasion, a colleague who initially promised me a job agreed to give me feedback on the phone. He said there were rumors at Duke about how I mistreat women and students. I had no idea what these allegations were even about and this was after I even left Duke. He couldn’t define what the actual incidents were and eventually conceded that the issue is he doesn’t want to deal with any trouble and that there are people jealous of my past successes. It’s a zero-sum game he said.