A federal judge sentenced a former University of Wisconsin associate professor Friday after she pled guilty in July for making false statements on government documents.

Elizabeth Goodwin, who resigned from her position at UW in 2006, was sentenced to serve two years probation and pay a $500 fine, said Assistant United States Attorney Timothy O’Shea.

In addition, O’Shea said Goodwin must pay restitution totaling $100,000.

Half of this restitution will go to the Unites States Department of Health and Human Services and the other half to the UW’s Chancellor’s Scholarship Fund.

O’Shea said he assumes Goodwin will pay the restitution while on probation.

The sentence came as a result of Goodwin falsifying data on a research grant application in 2005.

This indiscretion was reported by graduate students working in the UW lab.

Currently working in private industry, Goodwin also voluntarily excluded herself from federal research for three years, O’Shea said.

Goodwin did not receive the maximum penalty she was facing.

At the time she was charged, Goodwin faced a maximum of one year in jail, up to $100,000 in fines and up to three years of probation for the misdemeanor.

In an effort to protect students who come forward against their superiors in the future, UW formalized a procedure ensuring the students’ financial security so they do not feel pressure to stay quiet.

This procedure is meant to protect graduate students who would otherwise have lost incomes because their superior is no longer conducting the experiments or working at UW, Bill Mellon, UW associate dean for research policy, said in a previous interview with The Badger Herald.

In an earlier interview with the Herald, Goodwin attorney Dean Strang said his client wanted nothing more than to put the past behind her.

Mellon said the whole situation is unfortunate, especially because of Goodwin’s talent as a scientist.

Despite the changes made to UW policy, Mellon said the silver lining of the situation is far overshadowed by Goodwin’s mistake.

“I don’t know if anything good ever comes out of these situations other than a reminder to all of us scientists that integrity is important,” he said.

With the case finally settled, Mellon said he believes UW handled the incident well in terms of cooperating with the federal government, although the university was not involved until after Goodwin resigned.

At the time of the transgression, UW handled the situation internally under former Chancellor John Wiley.

The federal government intervened before any action could be taken however, Mellon said.

“We didn’t have a chance to deal with her because she resigned,” Mellon said.

Throughout the entire process, O’Shea characterized UW’s conduct as appropriate.

The university not only cooperated with federal courts, but also worked to protect graduate students who may see similar behavior in the future as well.

“The university has been fully cooperative during the entire process,” he said. “They took the students’ concerns…very seriously and they reacted very appropriately on it every step of the way.”