A UTEP professor who went on to become one of the university’s most prolific grant recipients – including a National Science Foundation award worth up to $160 million that was later rescinded – faced plagiarism accusations early in his career, according to documents provided by the university to El Paso Matters.
The plagiarism allegations involving mechanical engineering Professor Ahsan Choudhuri were first made public Feb. 6 by University of Texas at El Paso President Heather Wilson. She raised the 2006 case after the National Science Foundation inspector general said it couldn’t substantiate allegations of falsification regarding Choudhouri’s application for a 2024 NSF grant aimed at expanding El Paso’s aerospace manufacturing sector.
In a statement to El Paso Matters about the 2006 incident, Choudhuri said: “I vehemently objected to the findings; however, I accepted a compromise to avoid a lengthy and costly process, a decision made with the full confidence and support of (former UTEP President) Diana Natalicio.” He said Natalicio promoted him multiple times in the years that followed.
In May 2024, Wilson had cited allegations of falsification in the NSF economic development grant, which were made in an internal UTEP audit and disputed by Choudhuri, when she removed him as associate vice president of the Aerospace Center. UTEP’s internal audit in 2024 alleged that Choudhuri falsely claimed research assets in the grant application, including hangars at a rural airport and 8,000 acres of University of Texas System land.
The 2006 plagiarism issue wasn’t mentioned in the 2024 internal audit or Wilson’s termination letter to Choudhuri, and there’s no evidence they played a role in the National Science Foundation’s decision to suspend and then kill the economic development grant.
Investigations by the NSF inspector general and by El Paso Matters questioned the falsification findings.
Chouduri said the grant application was accurate and provided extensive documentation to UTEP’s internal auditor and the NSF inspector general – which he shared with El Paso Matters – to support his position. The NSF inspector general does not make public its investigation reports, so it’s unclear whether its investigation covered the same allegations as the UTEP internal audit.
In media statements regarding the inspector general decision and El Paso Matters’ reporting, Wilson said Natalicio had reprimanded Choudhuri in 2006 for plagiarism in a different NSF grant proposal.
Wilson didn’t provide evidence to support the claim – which she hadn’t made publicly until after the inspector general findings cleared Choudhuri of the falsification claims – but UTEP last week provided a two-page letter from Natalicio in response to an open records request from El Paso Matters.
UTEP officials didn’t respond to questions from El Paso Matters about what they saw as the relevance of the 2006 accusations to Choudhuri’s later career, including the 2024 NSF grant application that the university questioned. “We have already commented extensively on this issue, and we have nothing further to add,” the university said in a statement.
In the letter, dated July 13, 2006, Natalicio said she concurred with then-Provost Richard Jarvis’ recommendations for sanctions “in response to allegations of scientific misconduct raised by the Office of Inspector General at the National Science Foundation.”
Choudhuri was required to resign his tenure-track position in exchange for a non-tenure track appointment for up to three years, with the possibility but not a guarantee of receiving a tenure-track appointment in 2009.
He was required to complete a course in scientific ethics and research integrity, make two presentations a year on scientific ethics for graduate students and faculty, and provide additional assurances that any grant proposals over the following three years met rigorous standards for attribution and citation of the work of others.
Efforts to contact people copied on the letter or a member of Natalicio’s leadership team were unsuccessful. Natalicio died in 2021.
Choudhuri’s case was mentioned in the NSF inspector general’s semiannual report to Congress in 2006, he confirmed. The application in question was for a National Science Foundation CAREER grant, a prestigious program aimed to help support innovative junior faculty who could combine research in science, education and engineering with educational activities.
“A professor at a Texas university resigned from his tenure-track position after an investigation concluded that he plagiarized text into his NSF CAREER proposal. His claim of a one-time careless action was contradicted by the appearance of the same plagiarized text in his two previously submitted CAREER proposals,” the synopsis said. “The university conducted an investigation and found additional plagiarized text in proposals submitted to other federal agencies. The university determined that the subject’s actions constituted scientific misconduct.”
The NSF sent a letter of reprimand, and required him to provide certifications for two years that any submissions to NSF don’t contain plagiarized material.
That is the lowest sanction the NSF provides for scientific misconduct allegations. The harshest is debarment, or prohibition on receiving future NSF grants.
The NSF declined comment for this story.
The Regional Innovation Engines grant awarded in January 2024 to an El Paso coalition led by Choudhuri, worth up to $160 million, was one of the largest grants ever awarded by the National Science Foundation. It was suspended in April 2024 after NSF started a review of the grant application, then eliminated in August 2025 before the agency’s inspector general completed its investigation of falsification allegations.
In his statement to El Paso Matters about the 2006 disciplinary letter from Natalicio, Choudhuri cited his academic success that followed. He provided documents showing he was promoted to associate professor six weeks after the letter, granted tenure in 2010 and made a full professor in 2011. He became chair of the mechanical engineering department in 2010 and associate vice president of the Aerospace Center in 2018. He was awarded an endowed chair in engineering in 2015.
“All of these accomplishments – including my leadership of the aerospace center and my role as department chair – reflected strong support from university leadership and my sustained commitment to academic excellence and research innovation,” the statement said.
From fiscal year 2012 through fiscal year 2023, Choudhuri was responsible for almost $105 million in grant awards, including big grants from NASA, the military, U.S. Department of Energy, the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining, and the Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division Energetics Technology Center.
Choudhuri also pointed to Wilson’s praise of him and his longtime collaborator, Ryan Wicker, in a 2022 application that eventually led to a $40 million grant as part of the Biden administration’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge program.
“Dr. Ahsan Choudhuri and Dr. Ryan Wicker spent the last two decades of their careers building research preeminence in aerospace and additive manufacturing with a strong focus on student success. Their commitment to their students and their commitment to the community that they love has mobilized them to reach out beyond the university and connect UTEP’s research capabilities and industry connections to high-value job creation that will catalyze meaningful economic growth,” Wilson wrote.
In February 2024, Choudhuri and Wicker said in emails obtained by El Paso Matters that they felt university leaders were trying to force them out after the award weeks earlier of the National Science Foundation grant.
Three months later, Wilson removed Choudhuri as associate vice president of UTEP’s Aerospace Center. Wicker retired in November 2024. Choudhuri retired from the UTEP faculty in December 2025 and now runs Arc Aerospace, which develops low-cost weapons for the U.S. military.
In October 2025, the El Paso city government assumed administrative control of the $40 million Build Back Better grant after funding and staffing at the Aerospace Center declined precipitously following Choudhuri’s removal as associate vice president.
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