Eric Poehlman

Who is Eric Poehlman?

Eric T. Poehlman, a scientist in the field of human obesity and aging, was the first academic in the United States to be jailed for falsifying data in a grant application. His notorious crime was to publish utterly fraudulent research alleging hormone replacement injections as a therapy for menopause, when in fact it had no proven medical benefits at all. [citation needed]

He joined the University of Vermont College of Medicine in 1987 as an assistant professor, later working for three years at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. He eventually returned to UVM as a full professor. Poehlman built a reputation as one of the leading authorities on the metabolic changes that come with aging, particularly during menopause; he published more than 200 journal articles over two decades of research. His papers included research on the genetics of obesity and the impact of exercise, often following human subjects over time to document changes in their physiology. However, his stellar career unravelled when Poehlman's misconduct was detected and exposed by a former University of Vermont lab technician, Walter DeNino, who once viewed Poehlman as his mentor. Poehlman was accused of scientific misconduct and on March 17, 2005 pleaded guilty to the charges, acknowledging falsifying 17 grant applications to the National Institutes of Health and fabricating data in 10 of his papers that were submitted between 1992 and 2000.