The University of Washington has formed a special committee to investigate claims made in a congressional report that Richard Ellenbogen, chairman of UW’s Department of Neurological Surgery, tried to influence a major research study on football and brain injuries.
Ellenbogen also serves as chairman of the NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee, and Congress named him one of the NFL’s “primary advocates” in an effort to strip a $16 million grant from a Boston University researcher who had been critical of the NFL, according to ESPN.
Ellenbogen had been part of a different group that made a failed bid for the $16 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, according to the congressional report.