Dive Brief:
- Georgia Tech Associate Professor of Construction Engineering Dr. Jochen Teizer allegedly took $20,000 from graduate students under his supervision.
- The professor is now on leave and the university is moving to fire him.
- Around 10 Asian graduate students not entirely fluent in English made the accusations beginning in October 2013, with one noting that he paid over $10,000 to Teizer in 2011, prompting Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering Reginald DesRoches to begin an investigation.
Dive Insight:
The university plans to pay back the money, which Teizer insisted he planned to use on research, to the students involved in the shake downs. Foreign students who aren't fluent in English are particularly vulnerable to to this sort of scam from a variety of fronts, so it would perhaps be wise for international student offices to work on plans to prevent similar incidents at their own schools if they aren't in place already.