Famous scientists turn into scammers

China (China) is shaken by a 'scandal' that mimics scientific research similar to the case of Professor Hwang in Korea faking a germ cell research project. The case was publicly confirmed on 12-5.

Tran Tien in a press conference introducing Han Tam IC in 2003 - Photo: AP

Tran Tien has been a famous name in Chinese science circles over the past few years. Born in 1968 in Fujian Province, Tran graduated from Dong Te University in Shanghai and went to the United States to study. In 1998, Tran earned his doctorate in information technology from Texas University and worked for Motorola Corporation. In 2000, Tran decided to return to his hometown and teach at Shanghai University of Transport, one of the most prestigious universities in China.

At this time, the Chinese government prioritized the development of digital signal processing circuits used in electronic devices such as mobile phones, digital camcorders . Before that, no companies were available. in China successfully produced this type of microchip, and every year the Chinese technology industry consumes billions of dollars of foreign product imports.

Tran and his team at Shanghai University of Transport embarked on research. Only two years later, Tran announced the successful development of Han Tam (Hanxin) circuit, capable of handling 200 million signals per second. Chen's invention was hailed as the "great breakthrough of China's technology industry", which could help end China's dependence on foreign chip technology.

Since then, glory and money rushed to Tran, a young scientist now considered the pride of Chinese science. Tran was appointed as the head of the newly established microelectronics training school at the University of Transport, and led the university's research center. Tran also received abundant financial resources from the Beijing government to conduct research.

In 2004, Tran announced the new generation of Han Tam II and III microchip invention with faster processing speed. At that time, the company founded by Tran received orders to produce up to 3.5 million electronic circuits, and had contracts with giant technology firms such as IBM.

Tran's sunset began in December 2005, when some colleagues sent a letter to the Beijing government accusing Tran of falsely studying digital signal processing circuits. One of them also launched accusations on the Internet. A few weeks later, the government and the University of Transport jointly opened an investigation.

And on May 12, China was shocked when the government officially stated that Chen had forged research, and the Han Tam IC did not have the features Tran had advertised. In fact, Tran's fake tricks are extremely simple but also very sophisticated: enter Motorola's microchip, then let workers replace Motorola with Han Tam brand. By the above procedure, Tran surpassed the entire research appraisal group of the central government.

Shanghai Jiaotong University declared Chen's actions to be "despicable" and immediately decided to fire Chen. Beijing said it would never allow Tran to participate in state research projects. The government also suspended the Han Tam IC development project and revoked the research fund.

According to observers, Tran's scandal cracked the 'China in front of technology breakthrough' perspective and hurt the pride of a country that is determined to close the gap on science and technology with the West. Until now, it was not clear whether Tran was prosecuted for fraud.

HIEU TRUNG