"The University of Texas at Austin does not have the authority to revoke a student’s degree, according to a Feb. 11 ruling
by Judge Karin Crump in Travis County, Texas district court. The
judgment is the latest turn in the university’s years-long effort to
strip Suvi Orr of her doctorate in chemistry.
Orr began her graduate studies in organic synthesis in Stephen
Martin’s lab in 2003. In 2008 she successfully defended her thesis. But
six years later, UT Austin sent a certified letter to Orr saying the
school was invalidating her thesis based on research misconduct. The
university cited a 2011 Organic Letters paper that was retracted in 2012 (DOI: 10.1021/ol302236g) because two steps in the synthesis could not be reproduced.
