PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A former Oregon “Scientist of the Year” has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for possessing child pornography.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reported Monday that 57-year-old Niles Edward Lehman was sentenced after pleading no contest Monday to two counts of first-degree encouraging child sexual abuse.
Lehman was charged with viewing and sharing 35 illicit images of children from fall 2017 to fall 2018.
Authorities say the Portland State University chemistry professor uploaded videos and photos of child pornography to his blog on the social networking website Tumblr, which alerted the FBI to the images.
A 17-year employee of the university at the time of his arrest, Lehman received the year’s best scientist award from the Oregon Academy of Science in 2018.