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Professor David Latchman Not at Fault in Management of UCL Programme, Says Letter Authored by Birkbeck's Chair of Governors and President

The letter was written in response to a UCL enquiry into Professor David Latchman’s management of his UCL research programme.

Professor David Latchman
Professor David Latchman

The following letter was written by Sir Andrew Cahn, Chair of Governors, and Baroness Joan Bakewell, Birkbeck President, in response to a UCL enquiry into Professor David Latchman’s management of his UCL research programme. The letter was published in the Observer newspaper on Sunday 9 February 2020.

We write to explain the situation concerning the master of Birkbeck College, University of London (“Top geneticist ‘should resign’ over fraud by laboratory team”).

In October 2018, the outcome of a final UCL hearing formally drew this long-running case involving publications at UCL to a close. This hearing found that Professor Latchman’s management of his UCL research programme was not at fault.

The hearing followed two investigations into publications from Professor Latchman’s research group at UCL, which both concluded that Professor Latchman had no knowledge of, or involvement in, the image manipulation identified.

Birkbeck is an independent institution within the University of London. Professor Latchman is a successful master of Birkbeck and we have full confidence in his integrity and competence.