At trial, whistleblower testifies about alleged safety violations

and Mairzy Webster Mark Selikson, the former Penn safety official accusing the University of firing him for blowing the whistle on health and safety violations in the Medical School, testified yesterday that a Penn professor performed illegal radiation experiments on humans. On his third day of testimony during the wrongful termination suit he filed against the University two years ago, Selikson, 49, also addressed details about his private consulting company that Penn officials say was the real reason for his termination. The trial, expected to last three weeks, started on Monday. Attorneys for the University will likely begin cross-examining Selikson today. The first half of Selikson's testimony yesterday centered around Radiopharmaceutical Science Professor Hank Kung's alleged human radiation experiments that the U. S. Food and Drug Administration had been investigating since 1994. Selikson said that after the University suspended Kung's work in 1995 because of safety violations, the professor continued to perform his illegal and dangerous experiments at a hospital in South Korea. When Kung was first accused of continuing his testing, he claimed to have only performed the experiments on himself but later admitted that he also used at least two other human subjects for his work, Selikson testified. Selikson also addressed allegations that the University made against him in a countersuit. In Monday's opening statements, University lawyer Alan Berkowitz said officials fired Selikson because he was secretly running a private consulting business using University employees and supplies -- a direct violation of University policy. Selikson testified that he informed then-Vice Provost for Research Barry Cooperman about the company both verbally and in writing when he started it in 1989. Although he said Cooperman "frowned" at the idea of Selikson hiring his University staff to work for the consulting company, he allowed him to do so. Berkowitz said Cooperman's successor, Ralph Amado, was unaware of Selikson's company. Selikson used a chart yesterday -- which he said was similar to one he had also shown his supervisors -- to prove that the University employees who were working for him still invested more than the required 35 hours per week in their University jobs. Selikson admitted to using University supplies such as paper, disk space and radiation equipment for his company, which Berkowitz said made $220,000 during its operation. "It was a mistake," Selikson said of using Penn equipment for his business. However, he did point out that other employees also did private consulting using University computers and phones. Patricia Pierce, Selikson's lawyer, said she was happy with yesterday's testimony. "I couldn't be more pleased. I think my client's an honest, truthful, compelling witness." Berkowitz said he was impressed by Pierce's direct examination and remarked that the main witness' testimony is "always the high point" of a trial. He added, however, that the low point is often the cross-examination of that same main witness.