When professors raised questions about University of Florida students working as researchers on behalf of tobacco companies, they themselves came under tough scrutiny (see related article).
April 17, 2008
Gregg L. Michel, an associate professor of history at the U. of Texas at San Antonio, gets the coordinator of graduate students in the U. of Florida’s history department, J. Matthew Gallman, to post a notice offering “a current History Ph.D. student or recent graduate” work researching Florida newspapers, magazines, and other documents for $20 an hour. The notice says the research is “connected to product-liability litigation” for which Mr. Michel is a consultant. Mr. Michel ends up hiring four of the department’s graduate students to assist in his research on behalf of tobacco companies.
May 15, 2009
Mr. Michel identifies the four students in a deposition he gives in a lawsuit against the companies pending in state court. Days later, a lawyer for the plaintiffs forwards a transcript of the deposition to Louis Kyriakoudes, an associate professor of history at the U. of Southern Mississippi and an expert witness for the plaintiffs. Mr. Kyriakoudes forwards the deposition to Robert N. Proctor, a Stanford U. professor of the history of science who also serves as an expert witness against tobacco companies.
May 23, 2009
Mr. Proctor e-mails Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis, a professor in Florida’s biology and history departments, telling her that graduate students in the history department “have been working quite intensively for the tobacco industry.” When Ms. Smocovitis responds that she is “shocked” and asks for more background, Mr. Proctor sends her the names of the students and their advisers. “In my view,” Mr. Proctor writes, “this is historical malpractice, and I would be very interested to know if the advisers of these students know what they have been doing.”
May 24, 2009
Ms. Smocovitis and Mr. Gallman of Florida communicate by telephone and e-mail. Mr. Gallman says he does not think it is his role as graduate-student coordinator or adviser to tell students not to accept such part-time work. Ms. Smocovitis tells him Mr. Proctor might publish the identities of the students.
May 27, 2009
One of the graduate students e-mails Mr. Michel, relaying a conversation she has had with her department’s chairman regarding Mr. Proctor’s inquiries. Her understanding is that Mr. Proctor plans to publish the four students’ names. (Mr. Proctor subsequently denies intending to do so.)
June 7, 2009
In an e-mail message to Mr. Proctor. Ms. Smocovitis laments that various colleagues at Florida are reacting to her concerns about the students with annoyance or indifference.
June 8, 2009
Mr. Proctor e-mails Ms. Smocovitis suggesting she ask at Florida’s next faculty meeting whether those on hand “think it is a good idea for graduate students to be working secretly for the tobacco industry.” Although he predicts “the majority of your faculty will do the right thing,” she chooses not to raise the question.
July 27, 2009
Lawyers for the Liggett Group, Lorillard Tobacco Company, Philip Morris USA, and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company depose Mr. Proctor and ask him about his activities involving the Florida students.
August 11, 2009
Lawyers for R.J. Reynolds have the U. of Florida send a subpoena for Ms. Smocovitis’s e-mail exchanges with Mr. Proctor. Stanford U. subsequently receives a similar subpoena seeking Mr. Proctor’s e-mail exchanges with Ms. Smocovitis.
August 24, 2009
Lawyers for R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris USA depose Mr. Kyriakoudes, with whom Mr. Proctor had shared his correspondence with Ms. Smocovitis.
September 16, 2009
Lawyers for all four tobacco companies again depose Mr. Proctor.
October 2, 2009
Lawyers from Lorillard, Philip Morris, and R.J. Reynolds depose Ms. Smocovitis and ask her about her communications with Mr. Proctor and actions in response. R.J. Reynolds lawyers file a motion accusing Mr. Proctor of witness tampering and asking the court to preclude his testimony in a tobacco lawsuit pending in Florida’s Volusia County.
October 14, 2009
Lawyers for R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris accuse Mr. Proctor of witness tampering in a motion filed in a Broward County tobacco lawsuit.