"Alternative 3" by Leslie Watkins
THE MODERN BRAIN DRAIN
COMPILED BY STEVE QUAYLE
November 15, 2010: Chitra Chauhan, 33.
EXPERTISE: Chauhan, a molecular biologist, was a
post-doctoral researcher in the Global Health
department in the College of Public Health. She earned
her doctorate from the Institute of Genomics and
Integrative Biology in New Delhi, India, in 2005, then
studied mosquitoes and disease transmission at the
University of Notre Dame.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Chauhan was found dead in an
apparent suicide by cyanide at a Temple Terrace hotel.
July 12, 2010: Franco Cerrina, 62.
EXPERTISE: Cerrina was a leading scholar in optics,
lithography, and nanotechnology.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Cerrina was found dead in a lab
at BU‘s Photonics Center. The cause of death is not yet
known, but have ruled out homicide
APRIL 26, 2010: Vajinder Toor, 34
EXPERTISE: Toor worked at Kingsbrook Jewish
Medical Center in New York before joining the faculty at
Yale.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Shot and killed outside his home in
Branford, Connecticut.
APRIL 6, 2010: Joseph Morrissey, 46
EXPERTISE: Morrissey joined NSU in May 2009 as an
associate professor and taught one elective class on
immunopharmacology in the College of Pharmacy.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Victim of a home invasion. Although
the cause of death was first identified as a gunshot
wound, the autopsy revealed that the professor died
from a stab wound.
FEBRUARY 13, 2010: Maria Ragland Davis, 52
EXPERTISE: Her background was in chemical
engineering and biochemistry, and she specialized in
plant pathology and biotechnology applications. She had
a doctorate in biochemistry and had worked as a
postdoctoral research fellow at the Monsanto Company
in St. Louis. She was hired at the University of Alabama
after a seven-year stint as a senior scientist in the plantscience
department at Research Genetics Inc. (later
Invitrogen), also in Huntsville.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Murdered by Amy Bishop.
FEBRUARY 13, 2010: Gopi K. Podila, 54
EXPERTISE: Indian American biologist, noted
academician, and faculty member at the University of
Alabama in Huntsville. He listed his research interests
as engineering tree biomass for bioenergy, functional
genomics of plant-microbe interactions, plant molecular
biology and biotechnology. In particular, Podila studied
genes that regulate growth in fast growing trees,
especially poplar and aspen. He has advocated
prospective use of fast growing trees and grasses as an
alternative to corn sources for producing ethanol.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Murdered by Amy Bishop.
FEBRUARY 13, 2010: Adriel D. Johnson Sr. 52
EXPERTISE: His research involved aspects of
gastrointestinal physiology specifically pancreatic
function in vertebrates.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Murdered by Amy Bishop.
NOVEMBER 11, 2009: Keith Fagnou, 38
EXPERTISE: His research focused on improving the
preparation of complex molecules for petrochemical,
pharmaceutical or industrial uses. Keith's advanced and
out-of-the-box thinking overturned prior ideas of what is
possible in the chemistry field.
CIRCUMSTANCE: H1N1
OCTOBER 12, 2009: Stephen Lagakos, 63
EXPERTISE: Lagakos centered his efforts on several
fronts in the fight against AIDS particularly how and
when HIV-infected women transmitted the virus to their
children. In addition, he developed sophisticated
methods to improve the accuracy of estimated HIV
incidence rates. He also contributed to broadening access
to antiretroviral drugs to people in developing countries.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Car Crash.
SEPTEMBER 13, 2009: Malcolm Casadaban, 60
EXPERTISE: Molecular geneticist with a passion for
new research, Casadaban had been developing a
stronger vaccine for the plague.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Plague; the medical center says the
plague bacteria he worked with was a weakened strain
that isn't known to cause illness in healthy adults. The
strain was approved by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention for laboratory studies.
AUGUST 6, 2009: Wallace L. Pannier, 81
EXPERTISE: Pannier was a germ warfare scientist
whose top-secret projects included a mock attack on the
New York subway with powdered bacteria in 1966. Mr.
Pannier worked at Fort Detrick, a US Army installation
in Frederick, MD that tested biological weapons during
the Cold War and is now a center for biodefense
research. He worked in the Special Operations Division,
a secretive unit operating there from 1949 to 1969,
according to family members and published reports. The
unit developed and tested delivery systems for deadly
agents such as anthrax and smallpox.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Natural Causes.
JUNE 9, 2009: August ―"Gus" Watanabe, 67
EXPERTISE: Watanabe was one of the five highest paid
officers of Indianapolis pharmaceutical giant Eli
Lilly and Co. when he retired in 2003.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Friends discovered the body, a .38caliber
handgun and a three-page note at the scene.
They said he had been depressed following the death last
month of his daughter Nan Reiko Watanabe Lewis. She
died at age 44 while recovering from elective surgery.
JUNE 3, 2009: Caroline Coffey, 28
EXPERTISE:
CIRCUMSTANCE: Hikers found the body of the Cornell
University post-doctoral bio-medicine researcher along a
wooded trail in Taughannock Falls State Park, about
400 yards from the home she shared with Blazej Kot, her
husband and alleged killer, in Ithaca, N.Y., where the
Ivy League school is located.
FEBRUARY 14, 2009: Nasser Talebzadeh Ordoubadi,
53
EXPERTISE: Dr. Noah is described in his American
biography as a pioneer of Mind-Body-Quantum medicine
who lectured in five countries and ran a successful
health care center, General Medical Clinics Inc., in King
County, Washington for 15 years after suffering a heart
attack in 1989. Among his notable accomplishments was
discovering an antitoxin treatment for bioweapons.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Natural Causes.
JULY 28, 2008: Bruce Edwards Ivins, 62
EXPERTISE: Ivins was a coinventor on two US patents
for anthrax vaccine technology.
CIRCUMSTANCE: He committed suicide prior to formal
charges being filed by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation for an alleged criminal connection to the
2001 anthrax attacks.
JULY 3, 2008: Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, 23
EXPERTISE:
CIRCUMSTANCE: Laurent, a student in the proteins
that cause infectious disease, had been stabbed 196, half
of which were administered after death. Gabriel, who
hoped to become an expert in eco-friendly fuels, suffered
47 separate injuries.
MARCH 10, 2008: Yongsheng Li, 29
EXPERTISE: Li was a doctoral student from China
who studied receptor cells in Regents Professor David
Puett's biochemistry and molecular biology laboratory.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Cause of death unknown. He was
found in a pond between the Women's Sports Complex
and State Botanical Gardens on South Milledge Avenue
Sunday and had been missing 16 days.
OCTOBER, 2007: Dr. Mario Alberto Vargas Olvera, 52
EXPERTISE: He was a nationally and internationally
recognized biologist.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Blunt-force trauma.
MAY 31, 2006: Yoram Kaufman, 57
EXPERTISE: Dr. Kaufman began working at the space
flight center in 1979 and spent his entire career there as
a research scientist. His primary fields were meteorology
and climate change, with a specialty in analyzing
aerosols—airborne solid and liquid particles in the
atmosphere. In recent years, he was senior atmospheric
scientist in the Earth-Sun Exploration Division and
played a key role in the development of NASA's Terra
Satellite, which collects data about the atmosphere.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Struck by an automobile while
riding his bicycle near the Goddard Spaceflight Center,
Greenbelt, MD.
MAY 22, 2006: Lee Jong-woo, 61
EXPERTISE: Lee was spearheading the WHO's fight
against global threats from bird flu, AIDS and other
infectious diseases. WHO director-general since 2003,
Lee was his country's top international official. The
affable South Korean, who liked to lighten his press
conferences with jokes, was a keen sportsman with no
history of ill-health, according to officials.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Embolism.
JUNE 8, 2005: Leonid Strachunsky
EXPERTISE: Strachunsky specialized in creating
microbes resistant to biological weapons. Strachunsky
was found dead in his hotel room in Moscow, where he‘d
come from Smolensk en route to the United States
CIRCUMSTANCE: Struck on the head with a
champagne bottle.
MAY 19, 2005: Robert J. Lull, 66
EXPERTISE: Despite his missing car and apparent
credit card theft, homicide Inspector Holly Pera said
investigators aren't convinced that robbery was the sole
motive for Lull's killing. She said a robber would
typically have taken more valuables from Lull's home
than what the killer left with. Lull had been chief of
nuclear medicine at San Francisco General Hospital
since 1990 and served as a radiology professor at UCSF.
He was past president of the American College of
Nuclear Physicians and the San Francisco Medical
Society and served as editor of the medical society's
journal, San Francisco Medicine, from 1997 to 1999. Lee
Lull said her former husband was a proponent of nuclear
power and loved to debate his political positions with
others.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Multiple stab wounds.
MAY 8, 2005: Todd Kauppila, 41
EXPERTISE: His death came two days after Kauppila
publicly rejoiced over news that the lab's director was
leaving. Kauppila was fired by director Pete Nanos on
Sept. 23, 2004 following a security scandal. Kauppila
said he was fired because he did not immediately return
from a family vacation during a lab investigation into
two classified computer disks that were thought to be
missing. The apparent security breach forced Nanos to
shut down the lab for several weeks. Kauppila claimed
he was made a scapegoat over the disks, which
investigators concluded never existed. The mistake was
blamed on a clerical error. After he was fired, Kauppila
accepted a job as a contractor at Bechtel Nevada Corp., a
research company that works with Los Alamos and other
national laboratories. He was also working on a new
Scatter Reduction Grids in Megavolt Radiography
focused on metal plates or crossed grids to act to stop the
scattered radiation while allowing the un-scattered or
direct rays to pass through with other scientists: Scott
Watson (LANL, DX-3), Chuck Lebeda (LANL, XTA),
Alan Tubb (LANL, DX-8), and Mike Appleby (Tecomet
Thermo Electron Corp.)
CIRCUMSTANCE: Died of hemorrhagic pancreatitis at
the Los Alamos hospital, according to the state medical
examiner's office.
MAY 8, 2005: David Banks, 55
EXPERTISE: He was known as an Agro Genius
inventing the mosquito trap used for cattle. Banks was
the principal scientist with quarantine authority,
Biosecurity Australia, and heavily involved in protecting
Australians from unwanted diseases and pests. Most of
Dr Banks' work involved preventing potentially
devastating diseases making their way into Australia.
He had been through Indonesia looking at the potential
for foot and mouth disease to spread through the
archipelago and into Australia. Other diseases he had
fought to keep out of Australian livestock herds and fruit
orchards include classical swine fever, Nipah virus and
Japanese encephalitis.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Banks, based in North Queensland,
died in an airplane crash, along with 14 others.
APRIL 18, 2005: Dr. Douglas James Passaro, 43
EXPERTISE: Dr. Passaro was an epidemiologist who
wanted to unlock the secrets of a spiral-shaped
bacterium that causes stomach disease. He was a
professor who challenged his students with real-life
exercises in bioterrorism
CIRCUMSTANCE: Unknown cause.
FEBRUARY 8, 2005: Geetha Angara, 43
EXPERTISE: Angara was a senior chemist with a
doctorate from New York University.
CIRCUMSTANCE: This formerly missing chemist was
found in a Totowa, New Jersey water treatment plant's
tank. Angara was last seen on the night of February 8
doing water quality tests at the Passaic Valley Water
Commission plant in Totowa, where she worked for 12
years. Divers found her body in a 35-foot-deep sump
opening at the bottom of one of the emptied tanks.
Investigators are treating Angara's death as a possible
homicide.
JANUARY 7, 2005: Jeong H. Im, 72
EXPERTISE: A retired research assistant professor at
the University of Missouri, Columbia and a protein
chemist.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Im died of multiple stab wounds to
the chest before firefighters found in his body in the
trunk of a burning car on the third level of the Maryland
Avenue Garage.
APRIL 22, 2004: Darwin Kenneth Vest
EXPERTISE: Vest was an internationally renowned
entomologist, expert on hobo spiders and other
poisonous spiders and snakes.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Darwin disappeared in the early
morning hours of June 3, 1999 while walking in
downtown Idaho Falls, Idaho.
DECEMBER 29, 2004: Tom Thorne, 64; Beth
Williams, 53
EXPERTISE: Experts on chronic wasting disease and
brucellosis.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Husband and wife were killed in a
snowy-weather crash on US 287 in northern Colorado.
DECEMBER 21, 2004: Taleb Ibrahim al-Daher
EXPERTISE:
CIRCUMSTANCE: The Iraqi nuclear scientist was shot
dead north of Baghdad by unknown gunmen. He was on
his way to work at Diyala University when armed men
opened fire on his car as it was crossing a bridge in
Baqouba, 57 km northeast of Baghdad. The vehicle
swerved off the bridge and fell into the Khrisan River.
Al-Daher, who was a professor at the local university,
was removed from the submerged car and rushed to
Baqouba hospital where he was pronounced dead.
NOVEMBER 2, 2004: John R. La Montagne, 61
EXPERTISE: Head of US Infectious Diseases unit
under Tommie Thompson; was NIAID Deputy Director;
expert in AIDS Program, Microbiology and Infectious
Diseases.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Pulmonary embolism.
OCTOBER 13, 2004: Matthew Allison, 32
EXPERTISE: Allison had a college degree in molecular
biology and biotechnology.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Fatal explosion.
SEPTEMBER 5, 2004: Mohammed Toki Hussein alTalakani,
40
EXPERTISE: He was a practicing nuclear physicist
since 1984.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Shot dead in Mahmudiya, south of
Baghdad
AUGUST 12, 2004: Professor John Clark, 52
EXPERTISE: An expert in animal science and
biotechnology Clark developed techniques for the genetic
modification of livestock. He played a crucial role in
creating the transgenic sheep, Dolly, which earned the
Roslin Institute worldwide fame. He was put in charge of
a project to produce human proteins (which could be
used in the treatment of human diseases) in sheep's
milk. Clark and his team focused their study on the
production of the alpha-I-antitryps in protein, which is
used for treatment of cystic fibrosis. Clark also founded
three spinoffs: PPL Therapeutics, Rosgen and Roslin
BioMed.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Found hanged in his holiday home.
JULY 21, 2004: Dr. John Badwey, 54
EXPERTISE: Biochemist at Harvard Medical School
specializing in infectious diseases.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Developed pneumonia-like
symptoms; died two weeks later.
JULY 21, 2004: Dr. Bassem al-Mudares
EXPERTISE: He was a Ph.D. chemist.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Mutilated body was found in the city
of Samarra, Iraq; he was tortured prior to death.
JULY 6, 2004: Professor Stephen Tabet, 42
EXPERTISE: He was an associate professor and
epidemiologist at the University of Washington, and a
world-renowned HIV doctor and researcher who worked
with HIV patients in a vaccine clinical trial for the HIV
Vaccine Trials Network.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Unknown cause.
JULY 2, 2004: Dr. Larry Bustard, 53
EXPERTISE: He was a Sandia National Laboratories
scientist in the Department of Energy who helped
develop a foam spray to clean up congressional buildings
and media sites during the anthrax scare in 2001. As an
expert in bioterrorism, he co-developed technologies used
against biological and chemical agents.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Unknown cause.
JULY 1, 2004: Edward Hoffman, 62
EXPERTISE: He worked to develop the first human
PET scanner in 1973 at Washington University in St.
Louis.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Unknown cause.
JUNE 29, 2004: John Mullen, 67
EXPERTISE: A nuclear research scientist with
McDonnell Douglas. At the time of his death he was
doing contract work for Boeing.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Poisoned with a large dose of
arsenic. Investigators will not divulge how Mullen was
exposed to the arsenic or where it came from.
JUNE 27, 2004: Dr. Paul Norman, 52
EXPERTISE: An expert in chemical and biological
weapons, Norman traveled the world lecturing on
defending against the scourge of weapons of mass
destruction.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Killed when the single-engine
Cessna 206 he was piloting crashed in Devon.
JUNE 24, 2004: Dr. Assefa Tulu, 45
EXPERTISE: Tulu designed a system for detecting a
bioterrorism attack involving viruses or weaponized
bacterium.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Found face down, dead in his office.
The Dallas County Epidemiologist died of a hemorrhagic
stroke.
JUNE 22, 2004: Thomas Gold, 84
EXPERTISE: Author of ―The Deep Hot Biosphere,‖
which challenges the accepted wisdom of how oil and
natural gas are formed and, along the way, proposes a
new theory of the beginnings of life on Earth and
potentially on other planets. Gold's theory of the deep
hot biosphere holds important ramifications for the
possibility of life on other planets, including seemingly
inhospitable planets within our own solar system. He
was Professor Emeritus of Astronomy at Cornell
University and was the founder (and for 20 years
director) of Cornell Center for Radiophysics and Space
Research. He was also involved in air accident
investigations.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Heart failure.
MAY 25, 2004: Antonina Presnyakova, 46
EXPERTISE:
CIRCUMSTANCE: A Russian scientist at a former
Soviet biological weapons laboratory in Siberia died after
an accident with a needle laced with Ebola. Scientists
and officials said the accident had raised concerns about
safety and secrecy at the State Research Center of
Virology and Biotechnology, known as Vector, which in
Soviet times specialized in turning deadly viruses into
biological weapons. Vector has been a leading recipient
of aid in an American program.
MAY 14, 2004: Dr. Hank Mallove, 56
EXPERTISE: Cold Fusion; ―New Energy Research.‖
CIRCUMSTANCE: Blunt-force trauma to the head and
neck.
MAY 5, 2004: William T. McGuire, 39
EXPERTISE: He was a NJ University Professor and
senior programmer, analyst and adjunct professor at the
New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark. He
emerged as one of the world's leading microbiologists
who developed and oversaw multiple-level of biocontainment
facilities.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Body found in three suitcases
floating in Chesapeake Bay.
APRIL 12, 2004: Ilsley Ingram, 84
EXPERTISE: Ingram was Director of the
Supraregional Haemophilia Reference Centre and the
Supraregional Centre for the Diagnosis of Bleeding
Disorders at the St. Thomas Hospital in London.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Unknown cause.
APRIL 2004: Mohammed Munim al-Izmerly
EXPERTISE: Iraqi chemistry professor.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Blunt-force trauma to the head.
MARCH 13, 204: Vadake Srinivasan
EXPERTISE: He was originally from India, was one of
the most-accomplished and respected industrial
microbiologists in academia, and held two doctorate
degrees.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Car crash due to stroke.
JANUARY 24, 2004: Dr. Michael Patrick Kiley, 62
EXPERTISE: Ebola and Mad Cow expert.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Massive heart attack. Dr. Robert
Shope and Dr. Kiley were working on a lab upgrade to
Biosafety Level 4 installation at the UTMB Galveston
Laboratory (Homeland Security Contract).
JANUARY 23, 2004: Robert Shope, 74
EXPERTISE: Virus expert.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Purportedly died as a result of
complications incurred during a lung transplant, but
was later purported to have died of Idiopathic
Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), often caused by an
environmental stimulus or a virus.
JANUARY 6, 2004: Dr. Richard Stevens, 54
EXPERTISE: Hematology.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Suicide.
DECEMBER 18, 2003: Robert Aranosia, 61
EXPERTISE: Oakland County deputy medical
examiner.
CIRCUMSTANCE: While driving south on I-75 his
pickup truck went off the freeway near a bridge over the
Kawkawlin River.
NOVEMBER 20, 2003: Robert Leslie Burghoff, 45
EXPERTISE: He was studying the virus plaguing
cruise ships.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Hit-and-run.
OCTOBER 11, 2003: Michael Perich, 46
EXPERTISE: Vector-borne diseases.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Car accident; drowning.
JULY 18, 2003: David Kelly, 59
EXPERTISE: Kelly was the Ministry of Defense's chief
scientific officer and senior adviser to the proliferation
and arms control secretariat, and to the Foreign Office's
non-proliferation department, as well as senior adviser
on biological weapons to the UN biological weapons
inspections teams from 1994 to 1999.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Slashed his own wrists while
walking near his home.
JUNE 24, 2003: Dr. Leland Rickman, 47
EXPERTISE: Rickman, the incoming president of the
Infectious Disease Association of California, was a
multidisciplinary professor and practitioner with
expertise in infectious diseases, internal medicine,
epidemiology, microbiology and antibiotic utilization.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Unknown cause.
SUMMER 2003: Dr. Roger
EXPERTISE: China Lake geneticist.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Execution.
APRIL 2003: Bernardo Urbani, 46
EXPERTISE: Epidemiology.
CIRCUMSTANCE: SARS.
MARCH 25, 2002: Steven Mostow, 63
EXPERTISE: Mostow was one of the country's leading
infectious disease experts.
CIRCUMSTANCE: He died in a plane crash near
Centennial Airport.
MARCH 24, 2002: Dr. David Wynn-Williams, 55
EXPERTISE: He was an astrobiologist with the
Antarctic Astrobiology Project and the NASA Ames
Research Center. He was studying the capability of
microbes to adapt to environmental extremes, including
the bombardment of ULTRAviolet rays and global
warming.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Hit by a car while jogging near his
home in Cambridge, England.
FEBRUARY 28, 2002: Tanya Holzmayer, 46; Guyang
―Mathew‖ Huang, 38
EXPERTISE: Microbiolgy.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Tanya Holzmayer was shot and
killed by a colleague, Guyang ―Mathew‖ Huang, who
later shot himself.
FEBRUARY 12, 2002: Dr. Ian Langford, 40
EXPERTISE: Infectious diseases.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Found dead at his blood-spattered
home.
FEBRUARY 9, 2002: Dr. Vladamir ‖Victor‖
Korshunov, 56
EXPERTISE: Korshunov, inventor of a multi-purpose
vaccine to combat weaponized biologicals, was head of
the microbiology sub-facility at the Russian State
Medical University.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Blunt-force trauma to the head.
JANUARY 2002: Dr. Ivan Glebov
EXPERTISE: Microbiology.
CIRCUMSTANCE: ―Bandit attack.‖
JANUARY 2002: Dr. Alexi Brushlinski
EXPERTISE: Microbiology.
CIRCUMSTANCE: ―Bandit attack.‖
DECEMBER 6, 2001: Dr. Benito Que, 52
EXPERTISE: Hematology.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Cardiac arrest.
NOVEMBER 21 OR DECEMBER 23, 2001: Dr. Vladimer
Pasechnik, 64
EXPERTISE: Pasechnik was involved in the
exhumation of 10 London victims of the 1919 Type ―A‖
flu epidemic. He was also heavily involved in DNA
sequencing research. Pasechnik was the boss of William
C. Patrick III who holds 5 patents on the militarized
anthrax used by the United States and is now a private
biowarfare consultant to the military and CIA. Patrick
developed the process by which anthrax spores could be
concentrated at the level of one trillion spores per gram.
The anthrax utilized in the mail-borne attacks in the
United States was concentrated at one trillion spores per
gram…
CIRCUMSTANCE: Found dead in Wiltshire, England, a
village near his home. Two different dates have been
reported: November 21 and December 23. Cause of
death: stroke.
DECEMBER 16, 2001: Dr. Don Wiley, 57
EXPERTISE: Molecular Biologist with Howard Hughes
Medical Institute, Harvard University; top Deadly
Contagious Virus expert.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Abandoned rental car was found on
the Hernando de Soto Bridge outside Memphis, TN. He
was involved in research on DNA sequencing, and was
last seen around midnight on November 16, leaving the
St. Jude's Children's Research Advisory Dinner at The
Peabody Hotel in Memphis, TN. Associates attending
the dinner said he showed no signs of intoxication.
Workers at a hydroelectric plant in Louisiana found the
body of Don Wiley on Thursday, about 300 miles south of
where the molecular biologist was last seen. On
January 14, 2002, Shelby County Medical Examiner
O.C. Smith announced that his department had ruled
Dr. Wiley's death to be ―accidental;‖ the result of
massive injuries suffered in a fall from the Hernando de
Soto Bridge. Smith said there were paint marks on
Wiley's rental car similar to the paint used on
construction signs on the bridge, and that the car's right
front hubcap was missing. There has been no report as
to which construction signs Dr. Wiley hit.
DECEMBER 14, 2001: Dr. Set Van Nguyen, 44
EXPERTISE: Working on a vaccine to protect against
biological weapons, or perhaps on a weapon. In
January, 2001, the magazine Nature published
information that two scientists, Dr. Ron Jackson and Dr.
Ian Ramshaw, using genetic manipulation and DNA
sequencing, had created an incredibly virulent form of
mouse pox, a cousin of smallpox and Dr. Nguyen had
worked for 15 years at the same Australian facility. On
Friday, November 2, The Washington Post reported:
"Officials are now scrambling to determine how a
quiet, 61-year-old Vietnamese immigrant, riding the
subway each day to and from her job in a hospital
stockroom, was exposed to the deadly anthrax spores
that killed her this week. They worry because there is no
obvious connection to the factors common to earlier
anthrax exposures and deaths: no clear link to the mail
or to the media.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Found dead in the airlock of a walkin
refrigerator in a laboratory in Victoria State,
Australia. The room was full of deadly gas which had
leaked from a liquid nitrogen cooling system. The room
was vented.
DECEMBER 10, 2001: Dr. David Schwartz, 57
EXPERTISE: He was well-respected in biophysics, and
regarded as an authority on DNA sequencing.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Murdered by stabbing with what
appeared to be a sword in rural home Loudon County,
Virginia. His daughter, who identifies herself as a pagan
high priestess, and three of her fellow pagans have been
charged. Three teens that were into the occult were
charged with murder in the slashing death.
NOVEMBER 24, 2001: Avishai Berkman, 50; Amiramp
Eldor, 59; Yaacov Matzner, 54
EXPERTISE: Five microbiologists in this list of the
first eight people that died mysteriously in airplane
crashes worked on cutting edge microbiology research;
and, four of the five were doing virtually identical
research; research that has global political and financial
significance.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Another airplane crash kills 3
scientists. At about the time of the Black Sea crash,
Israeli journalists had been sounding the alarm that two
Israeli microbiologists had been murdered, allegedly by
terrorists; including the head of the Hematology
department at Israel's Ichilov Hospital, and directors of
the Tel Aviv Public Health Department and Hebrew
University School of Medicine.
NOVEMBER 6, 2001: Jeffrey Paris Wall, 41
EXPERTISE: Mr. Wall had studied at the University of
California, Los Angeles. He was a biomedical expert who
held a medical degree, and he also specialized in patent
and intellectual property.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Body was found sprawled next to a
three-story parking structure near his office.
OCTOBER 4, 2001: Five Unnamed Microbiologists
EXPERTISE: Three scientists were experts in medical
research or public health. The plane is believed by many
in Israel to have had as many as four or five passengers
who were microbiologists. Both Israel and Novosibirsk
are homes for cutting-edge microbiological research.
Novosibirsk is known as the scientific capital of Siberia.
There are over 50 research facilities there, and 13 full
universities for a population of only 2.5 million people.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Five unnamed microbiologists on a
plane that was brought down by a missile near the Black
Sea. Traveling from Israel to Russia; business not
disclosed.
MAY 7, 2001: Professor Janusz Jeljaszewicz
EXPERTISE: He was an expert in Staphylococci and
Staphylococcal infections. His scientific interests and
achievements were in the mechanism of action and
biological properties of staphylococcal toxins, and
included the immunomodulatory properties and
experimental treatment of tumors by Propionibacterium.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Cause of death not disclosed.
DECEMBER 25, 2000: Linda Reese, 52
EXPERTISE: Dr. Reese was a Microbiologist working
with victims of meningitis.
Circumstance: Died three days after she studied a
sample from Tricia Zailo, 19, a Fairfield, N.J., resident
and sophomore at Michigan State University. Zailo died
December 18.
JULY 16, 2000: Mike Thomas, 35
EXPERTISE: He was a microbiologist at the Crestwood
Medical Center in Huntsville.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Died a few days after examining a
sample taken from a 12-year-old girl who was diagnosed
with meningitis and survived.
APRIL 15, 2000: Walter W. Shervington, M.D., 62
EXPERTISE: He was an extensive writer, lecturer and
researcher about mental health and AIDS in the
African-American community.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Died of cancer at Tulane Medical
Hospital.
SEPTEMBER 1998: Jonathan Mann, 51
EXPERTISE: He was founding director of the World
Health Organization's global Aids program and founded
Project SIDA in Zaire, the most comprehensive Aids
research effort in Africa at the time, and in 1986 he
joined the WHO to lead the global response against Aids.
He became director of WHO's global program on Aids
which later became the UNAids program. He then
became director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center
for Health and Human Rights, which was set up at
Harvard School of Public Health in 1993. He caused
controversy earlier in 1998 in the media when he
accused the US National Institutes of Health of violating
human rights by failing to act quickly on developing
Aids vaccines.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Swissair Flight 111 over Canada.
JULY 10, 1998: Elizabeth A. Rich, M.D., 46
EXPERTISE: She was an associate professor with
tenure in the pulmonary division of the Department of
Medicine at CWRU and University Hospitals of
Cleveland. She was also a member of the executive
committee for the Center for AIDS Research and
directed the Bio-safety Level 3 facility, a specialized
laboratory for the handling of HIV, virulent TB bacteria,
and other infectious agents.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Traffic accident while visiting family
in Tennessee.
DECEMBER 25, 1997: Sidney Harshman, 67
EXPERTISE: He was a professor of microbiology and
immunology. He was the world's leading expert on
staphylococcal alpha toxins.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Complications associated with
diabetes.
Mark Purdey, his Lawyer, and Veterinarian working
with Purdey Die:
EXPERTISE: Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) doctor
Mark Purdey was familiar with the expression
―abnormal brain protein.‖ Before Dr. Purdey‘s death, he
speculated that Dr. C. Bruton might have known more
than what was revealed in his paper before he was
killed.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Purdey‘s house was burned down,
his lawyer on mad cow issues was driven off the road
and died and the veterinarian in the UK BSE inquiry
also died in a mysterious car crash. CJD specialist Dr C.
Bruton was killed in a car crash just before he went
public with a new research paper. The veterinarian on
the case also died in a car crash. Purdey's new lawyer,
too, had a car accident, but not fatal.
MAY 7, 1996: Dr. Tsunao Saitoh, 46
EXPERTISE: Abnormal proteins in Alzheimer‘s
disease.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Shot and killed, along with his
young daughter, in LaJolla, California. He was dead
behind the wheel of the car, the side window had been
shot out, and the door was open. His daughter appeared
to have tried to run away and she was shot dead, also.
Yakuza-style hit.
1995: Dr. Jawad Al Aubaidi
EXPERTISE: A graduate doctor from Cornell, he was
hired to head the mycoplasma bio-warfare research
project. One of Dr. Aubaidi's projects was filling
payloads of scud missles with mycoplasma strains.
CIRCUMSTANCE: He was hit by a truck in his native
Iraq while changing a flat tire.
1994: Dr. C. Bruton
EXPERTISE: A CJD specialist who had recently
produced a paper on a new strain of CJD.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Car crash.
MAY 19, 1994: Jose Trias
CIRCUMSTANCE: Trias and his wife were murdered in
their Chevy Chase, Maryland home. They met with a
friend, a journalist, the day before their murder and told
him of their plan to expose Howard Hughes Medical
Institute (HHMI) funding of "special ops" research.
Grant money that goes to HHMI is allegedly diverted to
black ops research projects.
MARCONI SCIENTISTS MYSTERY
COMPILED BY RAYMOND A. ROBINSON
ACCORDING to Raymond A. Robinson, author of
The Alien Intent, "over two-dozen science
graduates and experts working for Marconi or
Plessey Defense Systems died in mysterious
circumstances, most appearing to be 'suicides.' The
Ministry of Defense (MOD) denied these scientists had
been involved in classified Star Wars Projects and that
the deaths were in any way connected."
MARCH 1982: Professor Keith Bowden, 46
EXPERTISE: computer programmer and scientist at
Essex University engaged in work for Marconi, who was
hailed as an expert on super computers and computercontrolled
aircraft.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Fatal car crash when his vehicle
went out of control across a dual carriageway and
plunged onto a disused railway line. Police maintained
he had been drinking but family and friends all denied
the allegation.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: ACCIDENT
APRIL 1983: Lt-Colonel Anthony Godley, 49
EXPERTISE: Head of the Work Study Unit at the
Royal College of Military Science.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Disappeared mysteriously in April
1983 without explanation.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Presumed dead.
MARCH 1985: Roger Hill, 49
EXPERTISE: Radar designer and draughtsman with
Marconi.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Died by a shotgun blast at home.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Suicide.
NOVEMBER 19, 1985: Jonathan Wash, 29
EXPERTISE: Digital communications expert who had
worked at GEC and at British Telecom's secret research
centre at Martlesham Heath, Suffolk.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Died as a result of falling from a
hotel room in Abidjan, West Africa, while working for
British Telecom. He had expressed fears that his life was
in danger.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Open.
AUGUST 4, 1986: Vimal Dajibhai, 24
EXPERTISE: Computer software engineer with
Marconi, responsible for testing computer control
systems of Tigerfish and Stingray torpedoes at Marconi
Underwater Systems at Croxley Green, Hertfordshire.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Death-by-fall from Clifton
Suspension Bridge (74m - 240ft.), Bristol. Police report
on the body mentioned a needle-sized puncture wound
on the left buttock, but this was later dismissed as being
a result of the fall. Dajibhai had been looking forward to
starting a new job in the City of London and friends had
confirmed that there was no reason for him to commit
suicide. At the time of his death he was in the last week
of his work with Marconi.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Open.
OCTOBER 1986: Arshad Sharif, 26
EXPERTISE: Reported to have been working on
systems for the detection of submarines by satellite.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Died as a result of placing a ligature
around his neck, tying the other end to a tree and then
driving off in his car with the accelerator pedal jammed
down. His unusual death was complicated by several
issues: Sharif lived near Vimal Dajibhai in Stanmore,
Middlesex, he committed suicide in Bristol and,
inexplicably, had spent the last night of his life in a
rooming house. He had paid for his accommodation in
cash and was seen to have a bundle of highdenomination
banknotes in his possession. While the
police were told of the banknotes, no mention was made
of them at the inquest and they were never found. In
addition, most of the other guests at the rooming house
worked at British Aerospace prior to working for
Marconi, Sharif had also worked at British Aerospace on
guided weapons technology.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Suicide.
JANUARY 1987: Richard Pugh, 37
EXPERTISE: MOD computer consultant and digital
communications expert.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Found dead in his flat in with his
feet bound and a plastic bag over his head. Rope was tied
around his body, coiling four times around his neck.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Accident.
JANUARY 12, 1987: Dr. John Brittan, 52
EXPERTISE: Scientist formerly engaged in top secret
work at the Royal College of Military Science at
Shrivenham, Oxfordshire, and later deployed in a
research department at the MOD.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Death by carbon monoxide poisoning
in his own garage, shortly after returning from a trip to
the US in connection with his work.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Accident.
FEBRUARY 1987: David Skeels, 43
EXPERTISE: Engineer with Marconi.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Found dead in his car with a
hosepipe connected to the exhaust.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Open.
FEBRUARY 1987: Victor Moore, 46
EXPERTISE: Design Engineer with Marconi Space and
Defense Systems.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Died from an overdose.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Suicide.
FEBRUARY 22, 1987: Peter Peapell, 46
EXPERTISE: Scientist at the Royal College of Military
Science. He had been working on testing titanium for its
resistance to explosives and the use of computer analysis
of signals from metals.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Found dead allegedly from carbon
monoxide poisoning, in his Oxfordshire garage. The
circumstances of his death raised some elements of
doubt. His wife had found him on his back with his head
parallel to the rear car bumper and his mouth in line
with the exhaust pipe, with the car engine running.
Police were apparently baffled as to how he could have
maneuvered into the position in which he was found.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Open.
APRIL 1987: George Kountis age unknown.
EXPERTISE: Systems Analyst at Bristol Polytechnic.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Drowned the same day as Shani
Warren (see below) - as the result of a car accident, his
upturned car being found in the River Mersey, Liverpool.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Misadventure. (Kountis' sister
called for a fresh inquest as she thought 'things didn't
add up.')
APRIL10, 1987: Shani Warren, 26
EXPERTISE: Personal assistant in a company called
Micro Scope, which was taken over by GEC Marconi less
than four weeks after her death.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Found drowned in 45cm. (18in) of
water, not far from the site of David Greenhalgh's death
fall. Warren died exactly one week after the death of
Stuart Gooding and serious injury to Greenhalgh. She
was found gagged with a noose around her neck. Her
feet were also bound and her hands tied behind her
back.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Open. (It was said that Warren
had gagged herself, tied her feet with rope, then tied her
hands behind her back and hobbled to the lake on
stiletto heels to drown herself.)
APRIL 10, 1987: Stuart Gooding, 23
EXPERTISE: Postgraduate research student at the
Royal College of Military Science.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Fatal car crash while on holiday in
Cyprus. The death occurred at the same time as college
personnel were carrying out exercises on Cyprus.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Accident.
APRIL 24, 1987: Mark Wisner, 24
EXPERTISE: Software engineer at the MOD.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Found dead on in a house shared
with two colleagues. He was found with a plastic sack
around his head and several feet of cling film around his
face. The method of death was almost identical to that of
Richard Pugh some three months earlier.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Accident.
MARCH 30, 1987: David Sands, 37
EXPERTISE: Senior scientist working for Easams of
Camberley, Surrey, a sister company to Marconi. Dr.
John Brittan had also worked at Camberley.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Fatal car crash when he allegedly
made a sudden U-turn on a dual carriageway while on
his way to work, crashing at high speed into a disused
cafeteria. He was found still wearing his seat belt and it
was discovered that the car had been carrying additional
petrol cans. None of the 'normal' reasons for a possible
suicide could be found.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Open.
MAY 3, 1987: Michael Baker, 22
EXPERTISE: Digital communications expert working
on a defense project at Plessey; part-time member of
Signals Corps SAS.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Fatal accident when his car crashed
through a barrier near Poole in Dorset.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Misadventure.
JUNE 1987: Jennings, Frank, 60.
EXPERTISE: Electronic Weapons Engineer with
Plessey.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Found dead from a heart attack.
NO INQUEST
JANUARY 1988: Russell Smith, 23
EXPERTISE: Laboratory technician with the Atomic
Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, Essex.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Died as a result of a cliff fall at
Boscastle in Cornwall.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Suicide.
MARCH 25, 1988: Trevor Knight, 52
EXPERTISE: Computer engineer with Marconi Space
and Defense Systems in Stanmore, Middlesex.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Found dead at his home in
Harpenden, Hertfordshire at the wheel of his car with a
hosepipe connected to the exhaust. A St. Alban's coroner
said that Knight's woman friend, Miss Narmada Thanki
(who also worked with him at Marconi) had found three
suicide notes left by him which made clear his
intentions. Miss Thanki had mentioned that Knight
disliked his work but she did not detect any depression
that would have driven him to suicide.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Suicide.
AUGUST 1988: Alistair Beckham, 50
EXPERTISE: Software engineer with Plessey Defense
Systems.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Found dead after being electrocuted
in his garden shed with wires connected to his body.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Open.
AUGUST 22, 1988: Peter Ferry, 60
EXPERTISE: Retired Army Brigadier and an Assistant
Marketing Director with Marconi.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Found on 22nd or 23rd August 1988
electrocuted in his company flat with electrical leads in
his mouth.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Open
SEPTEMBER 1988: Andrew Hall, 33
EXPERTISE: Engineering Manager with British
Aerospace.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Carbon monoxide poisoning in a car
with a hosepipe connected to the exhaust.
CORONER‘S VERDICT: Suicide.
.
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