Decision made following 2 years and 9 months following the position was dismissed due to misuse of research funds
Seoul National University announced on the 19th that it decided to ban Lee Byung-cheon, a professor of veterinary medicine at the beginning of this month in relation to research misuse, and notified the Ministry of Education.
In 2019, the Seoul National University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation conducted an audit of regarding 16 billion won in research funds that Professor Lee spent for regarding five years from 2014, and confirmed the fact that he had used labor costs unfairly.
In addition, it was revealed that they did not transparently manage the research funds while purchasing a laboratory dog.
In response, Seoul National University dismissed Professor Lee from his post in 2020 and formed a disciplinary committee.
According to the ‘Seoul National University Teacher Disciplinary Rules’, the disciplinary committee must decide on disciplinary action within 60 days from the date of receipt of the request for resolution, and if there is an unavoidable reason, the period can be extended up to 30 days.
However, Seoul National University decided to take disciplinary action following two years and nine months had passed this period.
An official from Seoul National University explained, “Because of the combination of various disciplinary reasons, we have been given a severe exclusion disciplinary action.”
Prof. Lee was indicted on charges of bringing in a cloned dog May and using research funds illegally without the approval of the Seoul National University Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee, apart from this disciplinary action, and the trial is currently underway.
Professor Lee is also accused of leaking entrance exam questions to his son, who applied to graduate school at Seoul National University.
Professor Lee is a disciple of former Seoul National University professor Hwang Woo-seok and a scientist widely known as an expert in the field of dog cloning.
/yunhap news
