Egyptian chemist says a 2012 grievance triggered a 14-year retaliation campaign by MIT
A former MIT postdoctoral scholar says the university threatened deportation, falsified his personnel file, and barred him from campus after he complained.
Mohammad Noshi, an Egyptian chemist who worked as a postdoctoral scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from October 2009 until what he describes as his constructive discharge in May 2012, has sued his former employer in federal court in Boston. According to the filing in Noshi v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, No. 1:26-cv-12277, filed May 19, 2026, in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, what began as a workplace grievance has stretched into a fourteen-year fight that, in his telling, MIT has yet to put down.
The story Noshi tells will be familiar in shape, if not in detail, to any HR leader who has watched a misconduct complaint spiral. He says he raised concerns in 2012 about a hostile work environment, forced "ghost research," and exploitation tied to his J-1 visa status. Instead of an investigation, he claims, he got a runaround across departments and a pair of meetings he describes as hostile and intimidating. According to the filing, a human resources official, Robert Muti, told him during a March 30, 2012 meeting, "You are not from this country, and we can deport you if you file a complaint," and warned, "At this point, you should be worried about your safety and that of your family." A chemistry department official, Sylvia Ceyer, allegedly told him days later to "Go back to your country."
Noshi alleges that MIT had no working process for a postdoctoral scholar to file a discrimination complaint, and that, in his account, a November 29, 2023 letter from the school amounted to an admission that it had never reviewed his original grievance. He says fresh complaints fared no better. The filing states that an Institute Discrimination and Harassment Response office complaint submitted on February 23, 2026 was refused two days later, and that an EthicsPoint hotline report on February 27, 2026 was closed without any stated reason.
He also claims his personnel file was rewritten against him, with his DuPont funding scrubbed, fabricated performance issues added, and praise letters quietly dropped.
Perhaps the most attention-grabbing piece for HR readers is the No-Trespass Order MIT issued against Noshi on February 27, 2025, three days after he followed up on his still-pending grievance. He calls it "a direct, materially adverse action taken because Plaintiff engaged in protected activity." He says MIT continues to withhold his six laboratory notebooks, his DuPont contract, his letter of recommendation, and his first-author manuscript.
Noshi brings claims under Title VII, Section 1981, Massachusetts Chapter 151B, and state common law, and seeks back pay of at least $187,500, lost academic income of at least $6.5 million, reputational damages above $6.5 million, emotional distress damages above $1 million, and punitive damages above $5 million. He received a Notice of Right to Sue from the EEOC on February 23, 2026.
The allegations have not been tested in court. MIT has not yet filed a response, and no court has ruled on any of the claims.
