Wen Ho Lee | |
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| 李文和 | |
| Born | December 21, 1939 |
| Nationality | Taiwanese American |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | National Cheng Kung University (BS) Texas A&M University (PhD) |
| Known for | Mathematical work in nuclear explosion and in fluid dynamics, pleaded guilty to felony count of illegal retention of national defense information |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Nuclear physics |
| Institutions | Los Alamos National Laboratory Texas A&M University University of California |
| Wen Ho Lee | |||||||||||||||
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| Chinese | 李文和 | ||||||||||||||
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Wen Ho Lee or Li Wenho (Chinese: 李文和; pinyin: Lǐ Wénhé; born December 21, 1939) is a Taiwanese-American nuclear scientist and a mechanical engineer who worked for the University of California at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He created computerized simulations of nuclear explosions for the purposes of scientific inquiry, as well as for improving the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
A federal grand jury indicted him on charges of stealing secrets about the U.S. nuclear arsenal for the People's Republic of China (PRC) in December 1999.[1] After federal investigators were unable to prove these initial accusations, the government conducted a separate investigation. Ultimately it charged Lee only with improper handling of restricted data, one of the original 59 indictment counts, a felony count. He pleaded guilty as part of a plea settlement.
He filed a civil suit that was settled. In June 2006, Lee received $1.6 million from the federal government and five media organizations as part of a settlement leaking his name to the press before any charges had been filed against him.[2]
Federal judge James A. Parker eventually apologized to Lee for denying him bail and putting him in solitary confinement. He excoriated the government for misconduct and misrepresentations to the court.[3]