Mr. Shaukat A. Sangji & Mrs. Maimoona Sangji
Dr. Naveen F. Sangji, Mr. M. Hussain Sangji

December 9, 2015
Gerald Fink, Ph.D.
President
American Association for the Advancement of Science
9 Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phillip A. Sharp, Ph.D.
Chairman of the Board of Directors
American Association for the Advancement of Science
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Dear Dr. Fink, Dr. Sharp, and members of the AAAS Council,
We write to you on behalf of Sheharbano (Sheri) Sangji’s family to express our shock, dismay,
and utter disbelief at the news that the AAAS is electing Patrick Harran of the University of
California, Los Angeles, as a 2015 AAAS Fellow in Chemistry. For an organization that states as
its mission a goal to “promote and defend the integrity of science and its use”, we ask how you
can reconcile this laudable aim with a decision to honor a man responsible for the death of a
young scientist.
Our sister Sheri had just graduated from college when she joined Patrick Harran’s laboratory as
a technician in October 2008. On December 29, 2008, Patrick Harran ordered Sheri to carry out
a dangerous experiment using a highly flammable chemical. He had neither trained her to use
those chemicals nor provided the appropriate and required personal protective equipment and
training which may otherwise have prevented her death. Sheri sustained deep, third degree
burns to almost half her body carrying out Patrick Harran’s orders. Her skin blistered and
charred off her body- her neck, stomach, back, buttocks, arms, hands. After 18 excruciating
days in a burn care center, at the age of 23, Sheri lost her life to her injuries.
Our family can only assume that the Chemistry Section Steering Committee was not aware of
these facts when reviewing Patrick Harran’s nomination to the fellowship of the AAAS. We
sincerely hope that a brief description of the events leading up to and subsequent to Sheri’s
death will motivate you and the AAAS Council to withdraw this award.

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 Two months prior to Sheri’s death, Patrick Harran was warned about safety lapses in his
laboratory. He refused to correct those. Immediately following the fire, Patrick Harran
abandoned Sheri, critically injured, in the UCLA Medical Center emergency room so that he
could return to the laboratory to “finish” the experiment that meant more to him than Sheri’s
safety. Ordered out of the laboratory by law enforcement personnel, he broke into the crime
scene and ordered two of his post-doctoral fellows to help him destroy evidence that he
deemed indicting.i
Patrick Harran was criminally charged by the District Attorney (DA) of Los Angeles County for
four felony violations of the California labor code.ii,iii The DA’s investigator had recommended
manslaughter charges for Patrick Harran’s criminal culpability in Sheri’s death; four felony
charges were filed.iv[4] After years of court delays by Harran’s $4.5 million defense team, and
two pre-trial hearings that ruled sufficient evidence to proceed to trial, the Los Angeles county
DA settled the case through a deferred prosecution agreement.v,vi That agreement means that
Patrick Harran currently faces four counts of felony charges in the state of California. Over a
five year period, Patrick Harran is required to carry out court-mandated community service and
pay a fine to the burn center where Sheri breathed her last. Any violation of this agreement
would result in a criminal trial on the felony charges that hold Patrick Harran responsible for
Sheri’s death.
As our family suffers the loss of a child, a sibling, a close friend, we have to live with the
knowledge that Sheri’s suffering and loss of life was due to the ambition of a man who valued
his research above all else. Patrick Harran has shown no remorse for his actions in causing
Sheri’s death. Until ordered by the court that he could not publicly deny his responsibility in
causing Sheri’s death, Harran repeatedly issued statements denying culpability. In fact, he
attempted to blame Sheri, an inexperienced 23 year old, for her injuries and death. Such
conduct demonstrates a complete abdication of responsibility, lack of remorse, and callousness
unbefitting of a scientist and an academic.
We ask the Council- is this the sort of person that the AAAS leadership wishes to honor with
fellowship into your esteemed ranks?
Patrick Harran’s driving motivation to do experiments on a “large scale” level without
appropriate equipment or safety precautions was his ambition to “win the Nobel Prize in 6
years”, as he stated repeatedly to Sheri. He was willing to sacrifice the safety and well-being of
those for whom he was responsible to achieve that goal. By providing Patrick Harran with this
honor, you are supporting his destructive ambition. We ask you instead to support Sheri, a
young girl who was living life to the fullest, who had been accepted to several of the top law
schools in the country and dreamed of being an advocate for the environment and the
underserved, a girl who will never realize her potential because it was cruelly snatched away by
Patrick Harran and his ambition.
We, Sheri’s family, respectfully request that you rescind your selection of Patrick Harran as an
AAAS Fellow, based on his demonstrated lack of integrity and conscience, and his role in
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 causing the death of a young girl, for which he currently faces criminal charges. We ask you not
to honor a scientist who destroyed evidence at a crime scene, a professor who abused his
authority to order two post-doctoral fellows to help him destroy evidence. We ask you to take
this principled stance, not only out of respect for Sheri and her suffering, for the integrity of
scientific research, or to maintain the prestige of your award, but also for the far reaching
implications your stance will have for laboratory safety.
Awards and recognition from esteemed organizations such as the AAAS are in essence
endorsements for the recipients of these awards. Scientists and researchers look upon the
individuals thus honored as role models. Patrick Harran, the epitome of laboratory safety
failures, is the farthest one could be from a mentor or role model. It was in reach of honors
such as the one you offer that he recklessly ordered Sheri to her death. With his conduct in
direct contradiction to your stated goal of promoting and defending “the integrity of science”,
we ask that you formally revoke your offer of fellowship to Patrick Harran. You and the Council
have an opportunity to make a strong statement in support of laboratory safety and ethical
principal investigator conduct, and to capture the attention of scientists nationwide.
No one should suffer the way Sheri did. No family should have to deal with our loss. And
certainly, no principal investigator who runs their laboratory in a criminally negligent manner as
Patrick Harran has should be bestowed with any awards. We respectfully request that you
refuse to honor the unsafe science conducted by an unethical scientist.

Naveen F. Sangji MD MPH, and M. Hussain Sangji
On behalf of Sheri Sangji’s family

cc: Jyllian N. Kemsley
Senior Editor
Chemical and Engineering News
j_kemsley@acs.org
i

Fire Marshall, U.o.C.a.L.A., Supplemental: Fire Report 08-000878; EMS Report 08-001855; LAFD 0699. 2009. p. 3136. Available from: https://pubs.acs.org/cen/_img/87/i31/UCLA_Fire_Marshal_Harran_interview_200902-05.pdf
ii
Christensen, K. UCLA professor to stand trial in death of assistant in lab fire. 2013; April 26, 2013: Available from:
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/26/local/la-me-ucla-prof-20130427.
iii
Christensen, K. Report faults professor, UCLA in death of lab assistant. 2012; January 21, 2012: Available from:
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/21/local/la-me-ucla-lab-20120121.
iv
Baudendistel, B., Case Number: S1110-003-09: Investigation Report, University of California at Los Angeles. 2009.
Available from: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/286342/cal-osha-report.pdf
v
Christensen, K. UCLA professor strikes deal in lab fire case, avoids prison. 2014; June 20, 2014: Available from:
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-ucla-lab-fire-plea-20140621-story.html.

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 vi

Christensen, K. UCLA's legal fees in fatal lab fire case neared $4.5 million. 2014; October 16, 2014: Available from:
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-ucla-legal-20141016-story.html.

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