Milena Penkova

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Milena Penkowa (born April 15, 1973 in Odense as Milena Pedersen) is a Danish brain researcher and author , who became known through multiple scientific fraud.

Life

Penkowa grew up as the daughter of Danish- Bulgarian parents. In her youth she practiced show jumping and took part in the 1989 European Championship in Millstreet , Ireland . She graduated from high school in Kalundborg in 1991 , after which she moved to Copenhagen to study medicine . In June 1998 she successfully graduated with the degree cand. Med. (candidata medicinæ). Her doctoral thesis was initially not accepted because of the seemingly unrealistic high volume of experiments. With the second submission, the empirical part of the thesis was omitted, so that in 2006 she received her doctorate as Dr. med. successfully completed.

In a short time Penkova was initially assistant professor , then associate professor and finally in 2009 to the regular exemption in 2010 professor . The suspicion was raised several times that Penkowa was able to achieve such a remarkable advancement primarily because of good contacts both to the rector of the University of Copenhagen (KU), Ralf Hemmingsen, and to the then research minister, Helge Sander. In addition to the suspected nepotism , however, it was falsified data and documents about supposedly carried out research that later developed into criminal law relevance.

In an open letter in the Weekendavisen newspaper on December 22nd, 2010, 58 Danish scientists asked the KU to investigate the suspected misconduct and the role of the Rector in it. Penkova was developed by the University of Copenhagen already 10 December 2010 released and put in sequence from their positions as professor down, but at the same time denied any guilt from him. The Copenhagen City Court shortly thereafter sentenced Penkowa to three months' conditional prison sentence for embezzlement, forgery and false charges.

In September 2015, Penkowa was sentenced to a suspended prison sentence of nine months by the Eastern District Court (Østre Landsrett) for falsifying documents . The Copenhagen City Court had previously found Penkowa guilty in particular gravity ( gross document falsky ).

The Penkowa case has caused comparatively high waves in science. Journals such as Nature and Science devoted some small articles to the case, some extensive reports. Numerous articles were withdrawn from the trade journals as a result of the scandal. In the public and the media, the Penkowa case is sometimes treated as the greatest scientific scandal in the country's history.

In January 2017 it became known that Penkowa was publishing specialist articles again. Currently (October 2018) she is working with her company "Hjerneksperten" ( "The Brain Expert " ). She offers services as a speaker and editor for sale. In 2012 she published a popular science book on the influence of dogs on human health, which was also translated into German and has been distributed by Kynos-Verlag since 2014 . 2013 she spoke in Swedish Lund at the invitation of Scientology ready or almost ready Citizens Commission on Human Rights .

Research, Awards, and Science Fraud

Penkowa's research focused primarily on metallothionein . She has received numerous awards for her research results and has been able to acquire high third-party funding. Her awards include the privately endowed Lundbeckfonden's Talent Prize in 2002, Quentinfondens hæderslegat, the Young Scientist Lectureship Award in 2005 from the European Society for Neurochemistry (ESN) and the elite researcher award (EliteForsk-prisen) awarded by the Danish Ministry of Science in 2009. The latter was revoked on May 19, 2011, as the then Science Minister Charlotte Sahl Madsen announced.

In 2003, the then Dean of the Faculty asked Per Andersen from Norway and Anders Björklund from Sweden to review Penkowa's doctoral thesis. However, in February 2004 they came to the conclusion that criticism of their work was unfounded and that the first version of their dissertation should have been accepted. In 2007, three students approached Penkowa's colleague Elisabeth Bock because they could not reproduce Penkowa's laboratory results and suspected fraud. The then rector Ralf Hemmingsen passed the matter on to the corresponding internal university committee (Praksisutvalg), which, however, defended Penkova's research results without checking the primary data or questioning the three prosecutors.

From 1997 to 2010, Penkowa raised a total of DKK 9,765,000 (over EUR 1 million ) in third-party funding . In November 2010 it became known that a large part of it had been spent for private purposes (including furniture). This included, ironically, DKK 276,380.75 for legal fees in the course of the ongoing proceedings. In response to this scandal, the KU paid back more than two million DKK to the private "IMK Almene Fond" and charged Penkowa for the legal fees.

Penkowa published a total of 79 papers with 124 co-authors . A committee set up by the KU in 2012 and chaired by Hans Lassmann ( University of Vienna ) found that 15 of them were “potentially deliberate misconduct ”, which Penkowa contested. Another group of the Danish committees for dishonest conduct in science (Udvalgene vedrørende Videnskabelig Uredelighed (UVVU) or Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty (DCSD)) came to the unanimous conclusion that Penkowa was particularly guilty of breaking good scientific practice have. In addition, her colleague Bente Klarlund Pedersen was accused of having acted dishonestly in four cases. A complaint submitted by Elisabeth Bock regarding the falsification of research data in the context of a scientific article, however, did not lead to a clear conclusion.

In September 2017, the KU decided to withdraw the doctoral degree granted in 2006, with reference to the fact that it had not carried out the alleged experiments for the doctoral thesis that was submitted first and therefore did not have the maturity and scientific insight associated with the doctoral degree.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Krige kan også til Fore noget godt | Information. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  2. ^ Dansk Ride Forbund - Europamesterskaber for ponyer. October 29, 2007, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Milena Penkowa - from famous to infamous | ScienceNordic. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Hjerneforskerens fald - Aktuelt portræt - Navne. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Personal details: Milena Penkowa - DER SPIEGEL 11/2011. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  6. ↑ a b Fakta om Penkowa-say - Københavns Universitet. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  7. ↑ domstol.dk - Dom i say anklagemyndigheden mod forsker. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  8. ↑ FAKTA: Say mod Milena Penkowa | Indland | fyens.dk. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  9. ^ Fraud investigation rocks Danish university: Nature News. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Copenhagen revokes degree of controversial neuroscientist Milena Penkowa - Retraction Watch. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Danish neuroscientist gets court sentence for doctoring data | Science | AAAS. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  12. ↑ sz-online: Career planning in Danish . In: SZ-Online . ( sz-online.de [accessed October 15, 2018]).
  13. ↑ Penkova strength publicerer. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Hjerneeksperten - v / Milena Penkova. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  15. ^ Kynos Verlag: Dog on prescription. Retrieved October 15, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Penkova overrasker: åbningstaler ved Scientology Udstilling | Videnskab.dk. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  17. ^ Lundbeck Foundation Prizes - Lundbeckfonden. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  18. ^ ESN Young Investigator - neurochemsoc.eu. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Penkowa fratages EliteForsk-prisen - Uddannelses- og Forskningsministeriet. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  20. ↑ Universitet betalte for rejser, middage and møbler . In: Politiken . ( politiken.dk [accessed October 15, 2018]).
  21. ↑ Neuroscientist Falsifies Data? | The Scientist Magazine®. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  22. ^ The University of Copenhagen revokes doctoral degree - University of Copenhagen. October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Penkowa, Milena
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pedersen, Milena (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish brain researcher and author
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1973
PLACE OF BIRTH Odense