HONOLULU — A chemistry professor at the University of Hawaii is suing the school, claiming it breached a condition attached to a $1.2 million grant it accepted for an astrochemistry laboratory.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports Professor Ralf Kaiser in 2008 secured a grant from the Keck Foundation to establish the W.M. Keck Research Laboratory in Astrochemistry.
The facility opened in 2010.
Kaiser says most of the money was spent on a custom machine that can simulate conditions in outer space.
He says the lab was supposed to be open to researchers from local, mainland and international universities and that the grant specified the university would establish a tenure-track position to coordinate users.
He says the university has refused to fund the $75,000 position.
A UH-Manoa spokeswoman declined comment.