Robert Bauchwitz

Dr. Bauchwitz received an A.B. degree in Biochemistry from Harvard University in 1982. Thereafter, he completed a joint M.D./Ph.D. program at Cornell University Medical College ("Cornell"; subsequently, "Weill Cornell") and the Sloan-Kettering Institute. He received his Ph.D. degree in Molecular Biology from Cornell in 1990, and his M.D. degree from Cornell in 1991.

From approximately 1987 through 1990, while pursuing his Ph.D. degree, he worked as a graduate student in the laboratory of William K. Holloman, Ph.D. at Cornell. From 1991 through 1996, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Columbia University Department of Genetics and Development. While in the Columbia Department of Genetics and Development, he obtained his own lab and grant funding.

From 2001 to October 2007, Dr. Bauchwitz was employed by the St. Luke's-Roosevelt Institute for Health Sciences at Columbia University as Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, at which time he was a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology. He was also for several years during this period an adjunct professor in the Department of Natural Sciences at Fordham University. Some of the highlights of his research efforts to develop assays and neuropharmaceuticals relevant to a form of mental retardation that also shows significant autistic and epileptic symptoms can be found here. His current efforts are moving away from solely relying upon the use of mice for higher cognitive testing, towards performing clinical "testing" on human subjects, by which is actually meant "training" in the context of compounds and other treatments which can enhance neuroplasticity.

Current Research

Dr. Bauchwitz's research interests are now in notable part related to the handling of research misconduct. He had previously obtained significant training in fraud investigation from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE; associate member since 2004) and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Subsequent to the qui tam case, Dr. Bauchwitz obtained legal training at the Widener University Legal Eduation Institute (2). He also obtained computer network security training (CompTIA Security+ certification) because of the significant importance of secure and confidential digital communications to potential whistleblowers, plaintiff's attorneys, and fraud investigators, among others. A network security expert who works for the firm, along with Dr. Bauchwitz, discusses in a blog a variety of issues that they have encountered in working with others interested in the investigation of scientific research misconduct and fraud.

Dr. Bauchwitz's work in the area of research misconduct and whistleblower support is performed through the firm he founded, Amerandus Research. Dr. Bauchwitz is a certified fraud examiner (CFE) and a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), from which he has obtained training in operational audit. (Fraud examiners are also known as forensic or investigational auditors.) In addition to consulting and investigative activities, and ancillary IT audit functions, the firm also has some interest in performance audit of government functions. (Performance audit is the government and non-profit version of corporate operational audit.)