UCLA Researcher “Firing” Questioned in Newspaper Editorial

A case of a UCLA researcher, James E. Engstrom, who was reported soon to be “fired,” has been making the rounds of the Internet and has now penetrated print media. See below. It is not clear to me exactly the nature of the appointment involved from web sources. Dr. Engstrom’s official UCLA webpage is still active at http://www.cancer.ucla.edu/index.aspx?page=645&recordid=83

Dr. Engstrom’s work apparently is controversial because it questions ill-health effects of diesel and other pollutants and from tobacco. Googling his name pulls up various controversies surrounding his work and related personnel actions.

I have no other info on this matter beyond what is floating around on the Internet. But we are likely to hear more about it.

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So much for academic freedom at UCLA

San Diego Union-Tribune
Saturday, August 21, 2010 at midnight

From http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/aug/21/so-much-for-academic-freedom-at-ucla/

In December 2008, this editorial page broke the story that the California air board scientist whose research led to the adoption of sweeping, costly new rules governing diesel emissions had lied about his academic background. We also reported that air board Chairwoman Mary Nichols did not inform all members of the air board about Hien Tran’s academic fraud before their vote earlier that month to adopt the diesel rules.

Tran’s deception was uncovered by UCLA epidemiologist James Enstrom, who looked into Tran’s background because he felt Tran’s diesel study was shoddy and incomplete.

Twenty months later, Nichols has never been held to account. Tran was demoted but not fired by the air board. Enstrom, meanwhile, is on the brink of being fired by UCLA after a secret vote of the faculty in the Environmental Health Sciences Department. The official reason: Enstrom’s “research is not aligned with the academic mission of the department.”

So much for academic freedom. Enstrom’s colleagues appear to be punishing Enstrom for embarrassing Nichols, the former director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment, and for questioning conventional wisdom on some environmental issues. Yet Enstrom’s diesel emissions research, which undercuts air board claims that such emissions have a big death toll in California, has not been refuted. His dismissal letter doesn’t criticize his work. His admirers include Robert Phalen, who co-directs the Air Pollution Health Effects Laboratory at UC Irvine. Meanwhile, the air board admitted in April that it had grossly exaggerated diesel emissions from off-road construction equipment.

This picture doesn’t add up. What’s happening to Enstrom is wrong.