KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 — A Malaysia-born researcher based in the US is under scrutiny for allegedly failing to disclose over US$1.2 million (RM4.4 million) in funding from the energy industry that represent a conflict of interest in his papers denying climate change.

Dr Soon Wei-Hock, also known as Willie Soon, omitted such disclosure in at least 11 papers he authored since 2008, New York Times (NYT) reported.

The US daily also reported the scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics appeared to have broken the ethical guidelines of the journals that published his papers in at least eight of those cases.

“I am aware of the situation with Willie Soon, and I’m very concerned about it. We are checking into this ourselves,” W. John Kress, interim under secretary for science at the Smithsonian in Washington, was quoted saying Friday.

According to the newspaper, Soon is employed by the Smithsonian Institution, a group of research centres and museums operated by the US government, which jointly sponsors the astrophysics centre with Harvard.

Pointing out that Soon is not an astrophysicist, the NYT quoted experts critical of his theory that climate change is caused by the sun and not by increasing greenhouse gas emissions, an opinion dismissed by most other scientists.

Dr Gavin A. Schmidt, head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan, a NASA division that studies climate change, was reported by the NYT as saying that greenhouse gases produced by human activity were the main cause of global warming and that the sun likely accounted for not more than 10 per cent of the phenomenon.

“The science that Willie Soon does is almost pointless,” Schmidt was quoted saying.

UK daily The Guardian reported that Soon was cited by US Senator James Inhofe, the Oklahama Republican lawmaker known for denying climate change and who once called global warming a hoax.

The paper said Soon did not enjoy recognition from the scientific community as he has not received grants from Nasa, the National Science Foundation or other institutions funding his colleagues at the Center for Astrophysics, and noted that documents showed that most of his work is funded by the fossil fuel industry.

According to The Guardian, documents obtained by environmental group Greenpeace show that Soon’s largest single funder was Southern Company, one of America’s largest electricity providers that relies a lot on coal.

Soon’s other funders over the last 14 years reportedly include Exxon Mobil, the American Petroleum Institute and a foundation run by brothers Charles and David Koch who own Koch Industries, the second-biggest private company in the US.

The Guardian reported Soon as telling US paper, Boston Globe in 2013, that his industry funders have no influence over his scientific work.