Fall 2025 RISE Lecture Series - Finding Our Footing When the Ground Shakes: The Importance of Integrity in Science and Scientists

This lecture will examine research papers that underwent correction, retraction, or—in some cases—no action after criticism. In each case, transparent communication from journals, institutions, and authors minimized reputational harm to science, while obfuscation amplified it.

A healthier research ecosystem would destigmatize correction and retraction, encourage parties to answer questions rather than hide behind statements, and separate misconduct findings from record corrections.

Q&A will be held from 9:30 to 10:30 with the lecture taking place from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Speaker

Josh Fessel

Physician-Scientist

Josh Fessel is a physician-scientist with broad experience spanning pulmonary and critical care medicine, pharmacology, molecular metabolism, and data science. His work covers every phase of research—from basic to translational to clinical to population studies—and extends across academia, federal government, and public-private partnerships. Fessel is passionate about breaking down silos to unify the scientific and public health enterprise and amplify its impact.

Fessel earned his Ph.D. in pharmacology and completed clinical training in internal medicine, pulmonary medicine, and critical care medicine at Vanderbilt University, where he later served as an assistant professor of medicine, pharmacology, and cancer biology. At Vanderbilt, he led a basic and early translational lab focused on redox biology, molecular metabolism, and mitochondrial biology in complex disease phenotypes, while also caring for veterans at the Nashville VA Medical Center.

He then joined the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute as a medical officer overseeing the pulmonary vascular disease portfolio, expanding his work to include data science and taking leadership roles in the NIH’s coordinated response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fessel later moved to the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), first as senior clinical advisor to the Clinical and Translational Science Awards program and then as NCATS’s chief medical officer and director of the Office of Translational Medicine.