Franklin Feng Tao

Feng "Franklin" Tao (Chinese: 陶丰; pinyin: Táo Fēng; born August 28, 1971) is a Chinese-born American chemical engineer who was a Miller Associate Professor at the University of Kansas.

His research areas of specialization are heterogeneous catalysis, energy chemistry, nanoscience and surface science.

He has published over 180 papers in international journals.

He served on the advisory boards of Chemical Society Reviews and Catalysis Science & Technology.

Tao earned his undergraduate degree at Chongqing Normal University.

He pursued a PhD in Physical Chemistry at Princeton University from 2002 to 2007 and conducted postdoctoral research in catalysis at University of California at Berkeley.

He started his career as an assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame in 2014.

During his tenure at the University of Kansas, he became Miller Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering and Chemistry and also served as the Director of Nanocatalysis for Chemical and Energy Transformations Lab.

Tao did research on in situ studies of chemistry & structure of materials in reactive environments, and conducted his further studies on reactor for tracking catalyst nanoparticles in liquid at high temperature under a high-pressure gas phase with X-ray absorption spectroscopy.

In 2019, the United States Department of Justice indicted Tao for 'failing to disclose conflict of interest with a Chinese university', as the first case of its China Initiative.

The evidence used by the Department of Justice was obtained after Tao was reported to the FBI for alleged espionage by a vengeful co-author, who presented manufactured evidence to the FBI.

Based on this evidence, the FBI obtained a search warrant.

Tao was subsequently indicted for an email regarding a contract to teach in China, but not for alleged espionage.

Tao and his lawyer have rebutted the accusations, claiming that the contract was neither signed nor accepted by Tao.

Using a GoFundMe campaign and loans from family members, Tao and his family raised "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to fund their defense.

On April 7, 2022, Tao was convicted by a jury of "three counts of wire fraud and one count of false statements" for not disclosing the contract on conflict of interest forms.

On September 20, 2022, a federal judge threw out the three convictions of wire fraud, leaving the count of making false statements on a form.

The judge ruled that prosecutors had not provided sufficient evidence to prove the wire fraud convictions.

On January 18, 2023, the judge sentenced Tao time served and supervised release, with no additional prison time, saying his case "is not an espionage case" and the prosecutor presented no evidence that Tao received any money for his work in China.

The judge also noted that Tao had published 16 papers and a book while working at home on unpaid administrative leave since being banned from KU's campus in 2019, saying that such a high level of productivity was indicative of his "continued value to society."

Tao is married to Hong Peng, a radiologist.