A Stanford University professor is suing the author and publisher of a peer reviewed study seeking $10 million in damages for "libel and slander" and the retraction of a published paper.

Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, has filed suit in D.C. Superior Court against Christopher Clack, of Vibrant Energy, and the publishers of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). According to new sources, Jacobson authored a paper in 2015 that mapped out a course to powering the U.S. entirely by renewable energy sources by the year 2050. In 2017, a study conducted by Clack and colleagues, and published in PNAS, refuted the findings in Jacobson’s paper.

In the lawsuit, Jacobson claims he reported at least 30 “false” and five “misleading statements” to NAS prior to the publication of Clack’s study, but NAS published the study anyway. Jacobson further alleges that the Clack study has harmed his reputation and career.

"The resulting headlines and articles in the press made Dr. Jacobson and his co-authors look like poor, sloppy, incompetent, and clueless researchers when, in fact, there were no 'modeling errors' made in their study," the suit states.

Clack, calling the lawsuit “unfortunate,” stated, “I am disappointed that this suit has been filed. Our paper underwent very rigorous peer review, and two further extraordinary editorial reviews by the nation’s most prestigious academic journal, which considered Dr. Jacobson’s criticisms and found them to be without merit. It's unfortunate that Dr. Jacobson has now chosen to re-argue his points in a court of law, rather than in the academic literature, where they belong."

—Source: mashable.com