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[xenophonatheniensis]

The Japanese blogosphere has been abuz for some time over the case of Dr. Serkan Anilir, an assistant professor of engineering at the University of Tokyo. Some serious charges of academic/professional dishonesty have been leveled against him, including: 1) Making up journal articles that he supposedly authored but do not exist; 2) Falsely claiming to be a NASA astronaut in training; 3) Again falsely claiming that he was an Olympic gold medalist in skiing. The charges are set out in detail here > http://dranilir.blogspot.com/
     Are these charges for real? Or is this Dr. Serkan Anilir really a genius whom the U. of Tokyo should be proud to have in its ranks? Any imput is greatly appreciated.

[profxfiles]

If he doesn't have Nobel or a Pulitzer, I would drop him like a stone.

[der_gadfly]

...
1) Making up journal articles that he supposedly authored but do not exist;
2) Falsely claiming to be a NASA astronaut in training;
3) Again falsely claiming that he was an Olympic gold medalist in skiing.

#1 would be a serious issue.
#2 is less of an issue: (on edit - the photo posted on the blog is the ONLY one that is faded out.... hmmm.....)
#3 this is a character issue, and is relatively unrelated to teaching and/or academic output.

I am sure that Tokyo U is very capable of burying the issue in committee for a decade or so, since noone will actually want to make a decision about what to do.

[sciencephd]

Well, except for the one paper in Physical Review Letters, they are pretty odd and obscure publications to make up.  This guy is hardly significant if that is his publication list, regardless of whether they are real or imaginary.

[xenophonatheniensis]

Thanks for your responses everyone. My worry is that if the claims against him are true and he is eventually exposed, this will do great damage to foreigners working or trying to work in the Japanese university system. Trust me, a lot of people are not going to brush off this case because Dr. Serkan Anilir is a very popular figure in Japan and has served in several governmental panels, given extended interviews to major media outlets (including the Asahi Shimbun), been a speaker at the 130th founding ceremony of the U. of Tokyo etc. He has also apparently received a competitive grant from the Japanese gov. using a bogus (or at best, incorrect) list of academic achievements. Just the right guy to showcase when you want to purify the academia of foreign blood.

[mingus]

A con-man and not a very good one at that.  Still, people have mortgages to pay, mouths to feed, etc.

[mingus]

Todai has turned out to be a joke.

[tokyoturtle]

Serkan Anilir's Ph.D. has been officially revoked by the University of Tokyo.

http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/public/public01_220305_j.html

This is the first ever such instance in the 133 year history of the university.
Not surprisingly, the tone of the press release (only in Japanese so far) is
very serious. Mr. Anilir plagiarized ~40% of his thesis, often copy/pasting
multiple pages of text and figures at a time. In some cases, he intentionally
changed the words to "I" and "by author" etc., to make it look like HE came
up with the ideas. The press release says that the university is still investigating
other allegations surrounding Mr. Anilir, such as listing nonexistent references
in grant progress reports and various unconfirmed past positions in his resume.