The conflicting issue with Nemeroff is yes he messed up and messed up in a way that he should've been penalized. The conflict is do you then cast out one of the greatest living minds in the field that can contribute much more?
Far better to penalize the guy, then allow him to continue after paying his penalty but on a leash so he doesn't do it again. Kind of like Frank Abagnale, the real life character of
Catch Me if You Can. The guy stole millions in fake checks, is eventually caught, but after serving several months in a federal prison then the FBI release him on the condition that he work for them helping them to catch other frauds.
In Nemeroff's case, IMHO, he got off too lightly. He should've payed some type of financial penalty such as having to return the money from pharmaceuticals which would've likely amounted to millions of dollars, but repeating myself, the guy likely has several more advancements he could contribute to the field.
Time will tell where this ends up but if Lieberman doesn't land on his feet like others have I suspect it will be related to his likeability factor or lack thereof.
I have no idea what Lieberman will do but he doesn't appear to be an academic gypsy as some of us (at least in my case formerly) in academia call it. Also he's older and if you love NYC you do not want to leave NYC. Nothing will replace it. I've lived just outside NYC for 3 decades.
An academic gypsy is a type of professor who isn't going to settle in their current institution and is willing to make cross state, even country moves to advance their career. Such moves are often times mandatory if you want to get to the upper echelons of the field. Further, because high academia isn't everywhere the usual roads force such professors to leave.
E.g. Say you're a Ph.D. in any field. You apply for a professor's position. Not every town in the USA has a university or college with a graduate department. So you apply to 10 places. It's like applying to college all over again and having to go to the best college for you even if it's on the other side of the country. So say you're at the new place in a new location and after being there 5 years you realize you're going to only go so far and another university in a different area of the country contacts you and wants you to head something at their institution with a big promotion.
In medical academia this phenomenon still exists but not as much. Most physicians are in a position where they can just get out of academia, work clinically, and decide not to move especially since for most physicians getting married and having kids is only a few years after residency if not sooner. Who wants to move if you don't have to do so? But if you're say, a Ph.D. mathematician or physicist you just can't stop your job and open up some type of Math or Physics business.
The upper areas of medical academia you do, however, still see academic gypsies. I don't know Lieberman for real and I'm not going to BS that the few times I've met him in person qualifies that I know this guy. He doesn't seem, however, to be the sort. He's older, lived in NYC for decades, people who've done so will not want to leave that lifestyle, and is likely closer to retirement than starting over again.
My wife and I were and even now are in that position. I couldn't stand my last academic institution and I would've had to move yet again and either come back to U of Cincinnati (that told me they'd love to have me back) or go to a different place. The other institution in the city, Washington U did talk to me and told me to consider joining them, but I was told by some others that this could be seen as a backstab because other professors did what I had done and they were perceived as backstabbers. I just instead left academia. Yeah it was sad, especially since I would've been happy staying at my prior job in academia in Cincinnati. Making 3x as much money, working about 60% of the hours, and being in new positions where the organization tells me they need me and shows me that respect did quite a bit to ease the transition. My wife gets offers from institutions outside the state at least every few months and her current job has become toxic. Her choices? Leave academia, stay in a toxic job, or we move to a different state.
But getting back to Lieberman and Columbia, I don't know if Lieberman will even remain in the institution, and repeating myself, what they did to Lieberman is peanuts compared to Oz. Yes it's a different case but it's the same administration in the same institution which is why I find it so in-our-faces questionable. IMHO the administration at Columbia ought to be suspended for letting Oz go as far as he did without consequences if you want to get hypersensitive woke although I'm being serious. The torches, pitchforks and knives are only focusing on one guy here when there's others. It's like firing some guy for slapping his secretary on the rear end but not firing the guy who pinched the bosom of his secretary for over 10 years day after day after day despite complaints and both guys worked right next to each other in the same building and everyone in that same building knew all of this was going on.
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