Prof Accused of Passing Drone Tech to China
Published on 2008-05-21 00:00:00
A retired university professor is accused of passing information to China about high-tech work on drones.J. Reece Roth, a 70-year old professor who used to work at the University of Tennessee's Plasma Sciences Lab got caught up in the complex web of regulations that surrounds non-classified data subject to export controls. On Monday he was formally indicted. The technology at issue involves using plasma -- ionized gas -- as actuators on aircraft.
"The charges involve work performed from 2004 to 2006 by Roth, the student and a university spinoff company for an Air Force contract to develop flight controls for unmanned aircraft, or 'drone''," the AP reports. "Prosecutors said Roth and the company he helped found, Atmospheric Glow Technologies Inc., failed to get government permission before involving foreign national Xin Dai in the work."
Just for clarification, Roch is not accused of passing classified information. Rather, he is accused of passing information controlled by International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which governs the export of munitions and technical data and knowledge related to munitions. The regulations, administered by the Department of State's Office of Defense Trade Controls, are notoriously hard to decipher, even for experienced export control officials. For universities, it has been even harder.
What may have caught up Roth is a limited exemption that covers basic research at universities but that does not extend to private companies. So, it could be that Roth didn't understand that the same things he could share with a foreign national at a university were not okay under the rubric of his private contract. But I would emphasize this is only one possible scenario.
Academics have been complaining for several years now about the State Department cracking down on university research, but Roth's indictment, no doubt, will make universities proceed even more cautiously. Nature, which has followed this story since 2006, notes today that the 70-year old Roth could face up to 150 years in jail.
On a related note, the research Roth was involved in -- plasma actuators -- is fascinating work with applications in stealth, hypersonics, and unmanned aerial vehicles, among other areas.
[Photo: University of Tennessee]
