Exhibit F: Excerpts from the Laboratory Journal of Yu Wang [short story]
Literary fiction in a form of a document. All events, characters, and organizations are products of my inflamed imagination and happened in Minecraft
2012-08-20
Work on the niobium project from the DOE has started. It will be the primary topic of my PhD, as Jiang and Tang will assist with elemental analysis and electrochemical measurements, respectively. First week was spent on literature review. I am so excited to be a part of this research!
<attachment: lit_rev_1.docx>
2013-01-14
The synthesis of Formulation H-54 requires 91.5 hours of monitored reactions. After 23 attempts, a stable protocol has been formulated. Tang is preparing impedance measurements, H-54 is expected to accomplish the baseline requirements for the grant.
<attachment: h54_actual_rev1_zhou_final.docx>
2013-01-17
Tang’s impedance measurements showed that H-54 does not offer any improvements over the commercial materials.
<attachments: h54_2.s2p, h54-2(1).s2p, h54-5.s2p>
2014-03-03
A wide survey across the phase diagram including H-130, has not yet resulted in a formulation that would statistically outperform the commercial control samples. Prof Zhou has expressed concern over the progress of the project. Exploring tantalum and vanadium additives.
2014-10-27
Prof Zhou had informed me that the lack of progress poses a significant issue for the grant.
<attachment: docs.zip>
2015-02-16
A potential collaboration with Dr. Friedland’s group from Stanford is possible. According to them, the use of boron-nitride sheets of precisely controlled shapes should work. Dr. Friedland’s group will handle the final stages of sample preparations and measurements.
2015-04-13
According to Stanford data, BN sheets have worked. They prepared the paper, which should be ready soon. Requesting samples back for confirmation.
2015-08-10
Cannot confirm the measurements. The paper is accepted to JACS.
2015-10-19
An irregularity is spotted in Dr. Friedland’s data. Background noise seems to be generated from a function. Prof Zhou is notified.
2015-10-20
I received instructions to keep re-running experiments.
2016-06-26
Jiang graduated. I am working now with Lin who took Jiang’s project over.
2016-12-19
Tang graduated. I am working now with Rama. The Stanford data cannot be reproduced. Their sample preparation protocol from the JACS paper also fails.
2017-02-16
Prof Zhou informed me that the DOE grant has expired and I don’t have enough papers to graduate with a PhD. I am graduating with a Masters degree this summer. Let this record show that I still don’t understand how BN works for the niobium-based formulations. Nobody talks and I can’t find a position with another professor anywhere in the department.
2017-07-10
I am joining Corning. It’s not a perfect fit, but at least I will work on something real.
Note from the Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael P. Welch:
This is the first documented evidence of Dr. Sarah Friedland’s alleged scientific misconduct. At the time, no action was taken from neither Stanford nor the University of West Dakota. Mr. Wang has worked in Corning Corporation for one year until this Optional Practice Training work authorization period had expired. Mr. Wang was not able to secure an H1B visa and left the United States on a flight from JFK to PVG on Jul 24 2018. Mr. Wang was not available for an interview and his whereabouts are unknown.
P.S. Originally submitted to this:
Image credit:
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/scientific-research-report-gm843765180-137949017