Hwang Woo-suk resigns his professorship

AP reports: South Korean researcher Hwang Woo-suk resigned from his position as a professor on December 23, 2005 after his university said he had fabricated the results of at least nine of 11 stem-cell lines that he claimed to have created.

"I sincerely apologize to the people for creating a shock and disappointment," Hwang told reporters as he was leaving his office at Seoul National University. "As a symbol of apology, I step down as professor of Seoul National University."




The charges of Mizmedi Infertility Clinic head (Mr. Roh Sung Il) who had said nine of the 11 stem cell lines were fake (and the veracity of the other two was questionable) seem to have been validated. Mr. Roh had also indicated that, of the authors of the May 2005 paper in Science, only Professors Hwang and Gerald P. Schatten (University of Pittsburgh) had written the paper (or even seen the paper prior to publication). Apart from the apparently bad refereeing, the journal Science has something to answer for in its acceptance and retraction policy as to co-authors.