The Road to an Investigation

December 26

The Boston Globe reports the discovery of information regarding the use of children in a state school for the retarded as human subjects for research involving radioactive substances during the 1940s and 1950s.

January 5

Harvard announces that an informal "working group" is investigating its involvement in the experiments.

January 13

A congressional panel convenes at the Fernald State School to hear testimony from former Fernald students about the experiments.

January 18

Harvard lawyers order medical School librarians to seal the files of a former faculty member, the late Dr. Clemens E. Benda, who was the medical director at Fernald and oversaw the experiments. The library hires an independent archivist to sort through 27 boxes of Benda's files.

February 4

Provost Jerry R. Green names a panel of high-ranking University officials and experts to investigate Harvard's link to experiments conducted on human subjects between the 1940s and 1970s.

February 8

The state Task Force investigating the experiments discovers a 1961-62 test which used radioactive iodine on children as young as one year old.

May 9

The state Task Force releases its report on the experiments, concluding that the test subjects rights were violated and that they should be compensated for their participation in the study. But the Task force declines to say who should pay.