James Enstrom, a UCLA epidemiologist, was denied reappointment last year to his position as a research professor in the School of Public Health. Dr. Enstrom, who had worked at the university for 34 years, got into trouble, according to the campus newspaper’s report in August, because his research findings on “fine particulate pollution” ran against conventional wisdom and “stirred up far more attention than scientific research usually receives.”

Part of what Enstrom stirred up was the revelation that the lead author of a key scientific paper used by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to justify new regulations had faked his doctoral degree. Enstrom blew the whistle on Hien Tran, who claimed to have a Ph.D. from UC Davis but in fact had a mail-order doctoral degree for which he paid $1,000. As that story unraveled, Enstrom urged CARB to reconsider its position to take …

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