The Cost of Unethical Behavior ─ A Pending Issue at the Argonne National Laboratory

While working at the Argonne National Laboratory by Chicago, Illinois, in the years 1990-96, Dr. Bottoni proposed to the Argonne management to invite his old acquaintance, Prof. Katsuhiro Sakai, of the Osaka University, Japan, to cooperate with him, during a one-year stay, on numerical problems related to thermal and fluid-dynamics computer simulations. At the end of the stay Prof. Sakai wrote a report documenting his work made with Dr. Bottoni and, part time, with an younger colleague, Dr. Sun. At this point the section manger, who had not cooperated to the technical work, pretended to be considered as co-author of the report, excluding Dr. Bottoni. This blatant violation of professional ethics was reported to higher management levels which, however, engaged in a cover-up policy aiming at tolerating the violation of the Code of Ethics established by the Laboratory. The books uncovers a full chain of violations so that the question arises whether the Code of Ethics is only a "piece of paper." The author not only claims justice, but also thinks that the American taxpayer should be made aware of a state of affairs which implies waste of time and of financial resources.