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Physicist Loses Degree for Data Falsification
cheese_wallet writes "Jan Hendrik Schoen was stripped of his doctoral degree by his university for fabricating data in his research. From the article: 'Schoen, now 34, was fired by Bell Laboratories in New Jersey in September 2002 after an outside review committee concluded that he made up or altered data 16 times while working in the hot fields of superconductivity and molecular electronics'."
Is it right for a discredited man to have his pHD removed? Is it right that popular opinion can determine how qualified someone is to make a statement in their field?
If he really knew his stuff he'd not have had to fit the results to his conclusion. He would have explained how his original hypothesis was wrong, and used the correct data to explain what actually happened.
I think he demonstrated just how little knowledge he actually has.
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I mean that You can't strip someone of knowledge
Indeed but if you are fabricating data you are proving that you didn't have that knowledge in the first place.
I strongly suspect his thesis did not contain any errors
Fabricated data is very likely to mean data he made up = errors
I've read about this in Germany: the law (in most states of the federation, I guess), allows a university to recall a doctor's degree, if the person proves to be unworthy (regarding science) at a later time.
Faking data is not to be taken lightly - scientists rely on the quality of previous work. If several other scientists have wasted years of their time because of this, that's a lot of damage done.
Some links: The article in german and Google's attempt at translating it
I don't know how it is in the US, but in Germany you can get your PHD revoked when you misuse it for unethical purposes. You know that when you get it, it is in all the documents you get and sign.
Since the PHD is a certificate that you are able to conduct scientific research, falsifying your data would certainly contradict this ability.
***Quis custodiet ipsos custodes***
AT THE height of his career in 2001, Hendrik Schön was producing papers at the remarkable rate of one every eight days" New Scientist: With hindsight, it was a hell of a lot of papers
The Hoaxes of Jan Hendrik Schoen
This guy was an extremely intelligent man; I work in his field and could not hope to understand the problems well enough to be able to fabricate data that fooled the academic community for years, and then provide a perfectly reasonable (and quite sexy!) explanation. You have got to remember he published this in the top journals in the world; their peer review process is extremely rigorous. He some how managed to work out what we wanted to hear, and produce the data to give us the answer. It is just a shame his efforts and ability was so misguided.
There are 10 types of people in this world. Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
I'm doing a PhD in civil engineering field - numerical simulations of behaviour of concrete and reinforced concrete. And also I've done a lot of research in granular materials field.
I think that I'll never understand what is the purpose for data falsification. Every, I say EVERY, scientist knows, that experiment that yields unexpected/bad results is a GOOD experiment. It gives new insight into how things work, it forces you to revise your model and change it. It leads you to change your model into a better one, and also it helps you in learning how to conduct scientifically correct experiments. Without failures and mistaken indeas humanity wouldn't learn anything.
Lust for changing results moves science BACKWARD instead of forward. is of course childish, on no-one benefits from that, even the lier does not benefit.
sorry about the rant, but I was really upset, and had to say that.
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#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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he has a secure future in politics at least
What does a pHD actually mean?
A PhD is a Philosophical Doctorate. It says that you can think intelligently and help progress the knowledge of mankind.
Is it right for a discredited man to have his pHD removed?
It most certainly is. If it has been proven that he's fudging scientific data, then he's clearly not helping to progress the knowledge of mankind, and is indeed hindering progress. False answers to justify hypothesis is never right. Anyone who plagerizes material or makes up their own science has no right to be called a doctor of philosophy. It's about using your knowledge, not about bragging rights for having been in school for n years.
Is it right that popular opinion can determine how qualified someone is to make a statement in their field?
Popular opinion? You mean a review board at the institution which granted him the degree? Did you even read the article? It wasn't about public outcry or bad publicity. "A committee of 12 professors at his alma mater in southern Germany decided after its own review to strip Schoen of the doctorate in physics he earned in 1998." It was his peers who revoked his degree, not the public.
Depends what field you work in.
If he moved to politics, he'd probably have a successful career.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
A PhD signifies that you have an understanding of the field, and that you have made a novel contribution, and are, therefore, capable of research.
If your thesis is based on forged results, the merit of your contribution may be nothing, or even negative. Moreover, it casts doubt on your ability to carry out research. Honesty is a necessary requisite of doing research, and your reputation counts for a lot in academia.
Your highschool diploma means that you have completed all your highschool courses. If someone were to find that you passed all your courses by shoulder-surfing or bribing the teachers or whatever, I fully expect that the institution should be able to revoke your degree.
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#include <malloc.h>
free(your.mind);
The reason for the revocation is not embarrasment, it is his unethical behavior. And the rules for getting and keeping your doctoral degree ( in German Promotionsordnung) clearly state that your PhD will be revoked if it is used for unethical or criminal purposes. So in this case the university really has no choice.
***Quis custodiet ipsos custodes***
In Germany, some universities can even revoke your PhD if you've commited a felony (unrelated to your PhD or any misuse of knowledge) and were sentenced to imprisonment of 1 year or longer. I always thought that was kind of bizarre.
For example, the RWTH Aachen does this. Here's the relevant text (Promotionsordnung der RWTH, see 19, "Verlust des Doktorgrades") Sorry, German only.
Imagine if it he had a medical PhD and was working in a hospital - would you see this issue diferently then?
Not quite the same. What he would stripped of then would be his license to practice medicine, not his M.D.
I mean that You can't strip someone of knowledge
Indeed but if you are fabricating data you are proving that you didn't have that knowledge in the first place.
I disagree. The knowledge he received his PhD for the "knowledge" he fabricated are two different things.
Oh, don't get me wrong. His scientific reputation is, and should be, in the toilet permanently. He should never work in academia again. Period.
But trying to withdraw a PhD sends a misleading message about what a PhD means. It's a certification of having fulfilled certain requirements, not a grant of endorsement.
We cannot pretend to alter the past, and say someone did not accomplish what they did, even if we later decide we do not like him. It sets the troubling precedent that we may strip people of their academic credentials at will. That's a bad idea, even our reasons for doing so would be good ones in this particular case.
They should have stuck with an announcement censuring him.
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I agree that cheating is not a lack of skill. I don't like Michael Schumacher as much as the next man, and didn't like Senna either, but I'm not sure you can call them cheats in the same way as, say, Darl McBride and the pump 'n' dumpers. I don't really believe they cheat to get success the majority of the time.
I agree that if they were so sure of being the best, they could surely have done it the 'proper' way, and I think in the majority of races they won on skill, not by cheating.
I agree that in some circumstances, the urge to succeed overrules the will to play fair, especially when the reward is sufficiently large. I don't suppose anyone has not cheated on something at some point of their lives. The difference is that success for most people is built on what they do 95% of the time, and only 5% when 'help' is required.
Personally I think that falsifying evidence/data is a BAD thing, regardless of whether it's a scientist or an officer of the law or a financial analyst. Making conclusions based on faulty input is going to lead to trouble for someone later down the line, and that's something I woudn't want on my conscience.
I think you are all missing the point. A degree is not a simple cert of knowledge, it is a cert of compitence and a trust model. It tells others that you can do a job not that you are a simple waling encyclopedia. This is especially true in sci/engineering professions. It also reflects upon the issuing university, as their grads are their finnished product and their best advertising. If you are hiring for an engineering position for a bridge and you have 2 canidates, #1 got a degree from Acme Diploma Factory and #2 has a degree from MIT, what are you going to think. You see the logo of MIT and know quality, you have never heard of Acme or know anything of it. Your choice is clear. As such from a bnusiness standpoint MIT can say to possible students that it grads get the best work possible, as such they have a keen intrest in keeping their name squeeky clean.
Employers don't want walking encyclopedias they want projects finished on time and on budget for their clients. What I am trying to say is a degree is more than a cert in knowledge it is a cert in the abilities to get the job done and done right. A professional and ethical attitude and behavior.
please excuse any typos and such. It is very late and I have had very numbers of beers
I take it you don't have a marriage certificate then ;-)
The university he got his degree from was the University of Konstanz in Germany. Here's a German article (babelfished) on the whole thing. The educational laws of the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg state that a PhD title can be removed if "through his behavior at a later point in in his career, the owner has proven unworthy of the title."
From Bell Labs' summary, we can find more about what he was charged with:
Not as true as you'd like though.
If you are hiring an engineer, generally, you want a certified engineer, a degree is not enough (or even strictly necessary). You want someone who has passed the local (regional, whatever) professional engineering exams, and is certified by the local professional engineers association. THAT is an engineer. Someone who just has a degree in engineering is someone who studies engineering, but not an engineer.
Similarly, if you want a lawyer, you want someone who has passed the local Bar exam, and is recognized by all the other lawyers (and the legal system) as a lawyer.. NOT simply someone who has a PhD in Law.
The same goes for Doctors, etc.
There is NO WAY a university can know that a person will, later in life, cheat. If the person is competent enough to get through the process at the university, then the university should stand by their original decision. The person's own record will speak for itself.
You're too kind.
Frankly, I agree wholeheartedly that the university should have publicly dissociated themselves from him, censured him, held a big press conference where they denounced him as a big fat jerk, taken away his library card, egged his house, given his email address to the Spammer's Union Local #97, sent him dead flowers, whatever.
But a PhD is a certificate of an accomplishment. It doesn't make sense to say it's rescinded unless it turns out that his actual dissertation had falsified data.
Frankly, I feel somewhat sorry for him. Reputation is everything in academia. We have a status system that makes Hollywood look like a socialist commune by comparison. I am just starting my own scientific career, and I can tell you, when you are considered "hot talent", you are treated quite well, but the pressure to produce is tremendous. Everyone is expecting great things of you, and when the promising lead you were chasing doesn't pan out, it can feel like *you* have failed.
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