Federal officials are reportedly investigating a former professor for allegedly passing sensitive technologies to China. J. Reece Roth, 68, a retired professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, told The Knoxville News Sentinel that he had been told that the authorities suspected him of disclosing sensitive information during a series of speeches at Chinese universities in May. When he returned from China, his possessions were carefully searched and copied, and various items were seized in a search of his office and lab.

The authorities are also interested in his work with a Chinese national who is a doctoral student on a U.S. Air Force contract with a University of Tennessee spinoff company.

Mr. Roth told the newspaper that everything he discussed in China “had already been published in either journals or as papers presented at scientific meetings.” He also said he was unaware that employing a foreign national on the research contract might violate the federal Arms Export Control Act. The university said that it did not believe Mr. Roth had violated the law.