These Fake Iranian Scientists

I promise soon to write a real post to explain why I have not been writing in this blog for so long. I also have a lot of half finished post that I will try to update soon. But for now let me tell you a story about another one of these fake Iranian scientists that made me so mad that I just had to come here and blow the whistle. Once my post is done I intend to send a link to "Professors against plagiarism" blog and I think this is now a good time to add that blog to our list of friends. I have been following this blog regularly and every story makes me really mad. In part because we have been trying hard to do real science, whether inside Iran or outside. These people want to get a name overnight and perhaps use some government funding, but by doing that they make it harder or impossible for the real scientists to be acknowledged and their papers to be published. Because now the journals know to reject papers (or flag them) if they come from Iran due to possible plagiarism. It is also because people in the government have no idea what research really is and they are easy to fool.

So, here is the story! I was sitting in my office on Sunday heating up my lunch (which soon I realized is gone bad, because I had forgotten to put it in the fridge overnight) and thinking about how much work I have to do in the next week before I can go home, I have to finish making a few samples for a German collaborator, Write 2 pages (my share of ) a grand proposal to get a new lithography machine in Penn, finish a few powerpoint slides for my Madison boss's talk in Barcelona (by monday morning) , finish reading a few papers for a modeling that I have to do and still don't fully understand for a meeting tomorrow morning, teach the new grad student how to use the instrument before I leave so that he can use the instrument while I am gone. So you see I am overworked already and still don't claim to be a "scientist" as that takes many more years of work than what I have accomplished in the last 10 years or so of doing serious research. In any case I decided to take a break and check my facebook (I am a natural procrastinator :D ) when I saw a friendship request by someone that I don't know. So I decided to check his page, and here is what he claims he is: (I am keeping his name if someone is interested they can ask me)

About Me:

Assistant Researcher of AAS (American Astronomical Society) Since 2007, and Associated Researcher of Smithsonian Institute for technology (Physics Department) Since 2008.Very knowledgeable in areas of Super-Gravity in BH's, High models of String theory, and had new theories about gravity and Dark matter effects in BH's. Versatile and experienced with a variety of best Universities top Scientists in the world. From 2006, researching in some areas of new kinds of Optics that called : New prototype of LMT- Liquid Telescope Mirrors, and Coating on thin layers and recently in cool sputtering and working with kinds of laser in Medical Applications and industry as Optics& Laser Engineering in Applications of Physics Institutes .

Colleges:

• IAU of Bonab-Poly technics university of tehran 08'06
• University of Bristol, 2 Present a Lecture in Conf. '05
• Hawaii, Honolulu, 2 Present a Lecture and AAS 210s Scientists Meet conf. '07
• Tabriz State Univ-Maraghe
  
  • 
    

High School:

• Segat Aleslam '02
  

Employer:

• Smithsonian Institution/American Astronomical Society
• 
  

Position:

• Associate Researcher/Assistant Scientict
• 
  

Time Period:

• May 2007 - Present

Location:

• Tabriz, Iran

Description:

• I have contact with these inst. by Internet, and in some cases for som conf.we see the adminstor there, I am working on Super massive Black-Holes and Homogenious Space modeling, and recently my workd held in Other way that called: Optical Surface and Laser in Medical. and in u wana 2 get more about me!! u can ask!!!

Aside from most of his credentials being completely wrong. This guy has no idea what affiliation means as for him presenting a seminar at some college means that he is part of it. I checked Smithsonian and AAS website and clearly (as I expected) this guy is not affiliated with those institutes. Later he explains that he has just collaborated with them by sending them an e-mail!! He doesn't know what the title "Associate researcher" is, which by the way he probably means assosiate professor which takes at least a tenur track process (where your research is probed for at least 5 years before they decide to permanently hire you) to get.

This guy is also interestingly clueless about scientific process. I have never seen anyone claiming he is "Very knowledgeable in areas of Super-Gravity in BH's, High models of String theory," not even the best scientists in the world. On top of that he also knows everything about non-linear optics which is also a challenging field in physical sciences (and I should know that because I have been working on it for a few years and still don't think I quite know much)

And to make me more mad he wants me to get a piece of pie (" in u wana 2 get more about me!! u can ask!!!") what more is there beside you being the definition of fraud! Needless to say he is doing all of this because his status in FB is "Single" and he has a picture of himself in nice suits and a tie with a medal (I am surprised he forgot to brag about his fake medal) attached to his suit. (reminds me of that other guys that was recently in the news)


Also just to be sure that I am not labling a real scientist as a fraud I checked the ISI web of science for his publications . As far as I can tell he only has one published ISI paper in the field of non-linear optics with affiliation with Unversity of Bonab. Nothing about super gravity or modeling (as this was an experimental paper if I believe they have done it themselves) and no other affiliation with other institutions.


Well, enough being mad, back to work on a weekend.
P.S. Typo's in the bold part are his not mine.