When the teaching hospital hired Bodkin in 1992 she automatically became an HMS instructor, although Gibbons said her appointment to the Harvard faculty was contingent on her remaining at the BWRVA post.

Bodkin said her salary was paid jointly by the BWRVA and the National Institutes of Health. "She had a Harvard appointment as do several thousand people at Boston hospitals," Gibbons said. "They are appointed to the department at the school, and they have complete academic responsibilities."

Bodkin's contract with the lab was renewed on a yearly basis.

"When I left it was at the end of my appointment but there was an understanding that as long as my grant was funded my appointment would be renewed every year," Bodkin said.

But Bauer said there was no such agreement. "She had a term appointment at the VA and her term appointment ended," he said.

The Integrity of the Research

After Bodkin filed charges of scientific misconduct with HMS, an HMS panel spent nearly nine months on its inquiry, which eventually exonerated Arbini.

In February, the Department of Veterans' Affairs also launched an investigation in response to letters from Bodkin's representative, Barney Frank '61 (D-Mass.), and the non-profit government watch-dog group, the Project on Government Oversight (PGO).