‘Second chance’: convicted US chemist Charles Lieber moves to Chinese university

Former Harvard scientist convicted of making false statements says he wants to do research that benefits humanity — and cannot do that in the United States

Charles Lieber leaves a Boston courthouse in 2020. He has now moved to China.Credit: Charles Krupa/AP Photo via Alamy

The prominent US chemist Charles Lieber, who was convicted of hiding his research ties to China from US federal agents, has joined the faculty of a Chinese university.

On 28 April, Lieber became a full-time professor at Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School (SIGS), according to a SIGS press release. The institution was established by Tsinghua University and the Shenzhen local government in 2001.

Lieber, whose research has focused on nanoscience and nanotechnology, will also be a researcher at the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (SMART).

Lieber told Nature that he is driven to do work that “benefits all of humanity”, including being at the forefront of research and supporting the careers of young scientists. “We decided to move elsewhere since I cannot do this in the US any longer,” he adds.

Downfall

Lieber was arrested in January 2020 and was later charged with making false statements to the US government about receiving research funding from China. Between 2012 and 2017, Lieber received around US$200,000 for work at the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China, funds that he allegedly hid from the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). He also told US investigators that he was not associated with a Chinese recruitment programme, called the Thousand Talents Plan, when he had been selected through it to lead a laboratory at the WUT.

Lieber was found guilty in December 2021 and was later sentenced to two years of supervised release in relation to six counts, including making false statements to federal agents, filing false tax returns and failing to disclose his Chinese bank account. He was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine and $34,000 to the IRS.

Lieber was one of the first and highest-profile researchers to be tried by the US Department of Justice under the now-defunct China Initiative. The government said that the programme, launched in 2018, was intended to protect US labs and businesses from espionage. But it also had a chilling effect on collaborations between US and Chinese scientists. Lieber, who was chair of Harvard University’s chemistry department in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the time of his arrest, was placed on paid administrative leave shortly after his arrest and later retired, in March 2023.