ALUMNI IN FOCUS
Fishbein ’83 Exposes
Government Misconduct
After paying a heavy price for his moral commitment, Jonathan Fishbein ’83 found justice. A safety expert, he was hired by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2003 to improve the safety of its AIDS research.
After alleging major safety violations in federal AIDS research and filing complaints about misconduct and sexual harassment among NIH management, Fishbein was fired—despite the fact that his job performance had been documented as outstanding.
In December, the biology graduate was reinstated after investigations substantiated many of his claims and records showed that NIH’s actions appeared to be a reprisal for his speaking out rather than being based on his job performance, as had been claimed.
Fishbein credits Lafayette with encouraging him to reach his potential.
“Professors [Bernard] Fried, [Robert] Chase, and [Louis] Stableford in the biology department were instrumental in
my appreciation for the rigorous nature of scientific research in the life sciences,” he says. “My pursuit of medicine and clinical research were by-products of that influence.”
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