U.S. physicist guilty of arms-export violation

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. physicist pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate export control laws by giving a Chinese research assistant technology for a weapons-type unmanned plane, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.

The department said Daniel Max Sherman, a former employee of Knoxville, Tennessee-based Atmospheric Glow Technologies, entered his plea as part of an agreement with prosecutors.

It said Sherman, the Atmospheric Glow company and a retired University of Tennessee professor conspired to transmit the data, which related to a U.S. Air Force contract to develop "plasma actuators" that improve a plane's aerodynamics.

The data was given to a Chinese national who was a graduate research assistant at the university, the department said.

The violation carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

(Reporting by Randall Mikkelsen)