Superconductivity researcher who committed misconduct exits university
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Ranga Dias is no longer employed as a researcher at the University of Rochester in New York, but continues to work at his company nearby, Unearthly Materials. Credit: Lauren Petracca/New York Times/Redux/eyevine
Ranga Dias, once a bright star in the field of superconductivity who has been enmeshed in a public scandal for the past two years, is no longer employed by his university.
Dias claimed to have discovered superconductors — materials in which electrons flow without any resistance — that could operate at high pressures and ambient temperatures. Previous materials of this type worked only at ultralow temperatures, which are impractical for use in real-world devices. The purported breakthroughs shot Dias to fame and won him millions of dollars in research grants. But after physics sleuths scrutinized the extraordinary results and reported concerns to the journals in which they were published, several of Dias’s papers were retracted. And an investigation by the University of Rochester in New York, where Dias was employed, concluded that he had committed extensive misconduct, including data fabrication.
The Wall Street Journal and Nature’s news team previously reported that university administrators recommended Dias, who did not have tenure, be fired before his contract expired in June 2025. Now, Dias has gone, although the university has declined to clarify whether he was fired. “Ranga Dias is no longer a University of Rochester employee, nor does he have any research activity connected to the University,” a spokesperson said in a statement. Dias did not respond to a request for comment.
