I have this guy's book! Honestly, even if he is wrong, it is worth a read. In addition to his research, the book is basically a memoir of working with NASA, and how there was a serious divide among scientists and engineers when it came to searching for life on Mars. Scientists wanted to find life, and there was an initial soil test that came back with two negatives and a positive for evidence of life. Engineers did not like this, since it meant NASA would accelerate a program to put Man on Mars, and would drain money from the engineers. Honestly, it is a good read and the names and events he mentions all check out from what I've looked into.
Brandenburg's book Death on Mars
John E. Brandenburg Ph.D. is a veteran plasma physicist and the Senior Propulsion Scientist at Orbital Technologies Corporation "Death on Mars: The Discovery of a Planetary Nuclear Massacre " https://www.amazon.com/Death-Mars-Discovery-Planetary-Massacre/dp/193914938X
Here's a book on it https://www.amazon.com/Death-Mars-Discovery-Planetary-Massacre/dp/193914938X