Talk:Mohammad-Javad Larijani

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He is not listed in Berkeley graduate list. His thesis is not posted. Does he have any proof of his PHD? -anonymous

You cannot change the article and just say he didn't complete his Ph.D. when you don't have solid evidence of that. He is the head of a highly respected academic and reaseach center with lots of Ph.D.'s from all over the world. His IPM bio indicates he has a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. If there is such a list as you claim, that is, an official list of Ph.D.'s form UC Bekeley, then please put a link to that list here so that we can see it too. In the meantime, I am going to return the article to its previous state. --69.224.19.143 09:51, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Seriously, Mohammad Javad Larijani was a graduate student specializing in Foundations of Mathematics at Berkeley starting (I think) around 1973. (I don't know whether he was officially in the Math Department or, rather, in the Group in Logic and Methodology of Science.) He was (as far as I know, officially) a student of Robert Lawson Vaught, and Vaught has explicitly expressed indignation that Larijani seemed to be claiming a Berkeley Ph.D. If Larijani had switched advisors within the math department or logic group Vaught would certainly have had to know. Furthermore, there is no mention at all of Larijani in the Fefermans' 2004 comprehensive biography of Alfred Tarski. There is also no Ph.D. dissertation by Javad Larijani (on any subject) in the UC system library catalog; there can be no way to get an earned UC Ph.D. without the library getting a copy of your dissertation with your dissertation committees' signatures on the signature page. (I bet even in those cases where some book you've written is post-factum accepted as your Ph.D. dissertation, the library still has to get something with a signature page to catalog for its archival dissertation collection.) Thus any Ph.D. would have to be, certainly primarily, from some other advisor at some other university.

The comments in the HTML on his IPM webpage claim he has a PhD and MSc from Berkeley without any year. He's on the maths genealogy website as a student of Vaught, but the title there is ridiculous. I've emailed the maintainer asking it to be removed. Because:

(1) the thesis is not in the UC library catalogue -- if he has one, it has to be there (2) the thesis is not in the UMI database, as all PhD theses from the US must be (3) Prof Mahmoodian, president of the Iranian Mathematical Society, told me MJL spent eight years at Berkeley but does not have a PhD.

This should end the discussion, unless anyone has positive proof of it.

[edit] A mathematician?

I looked for citations of Larijani's mathematical works, and could find none. I don't think he's a mathematician. Can anyone supply a reference to a book or article he has written? Thanks! DavidCBryant 20:14, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

You think he's not a mathematician? The mathematical community is more inclusive than that, I'd hope; and if M-J A L's not, I must not be either, whereas I very much would like to have the privilege of thinking myself so. There can be no doubt about seriousness as graduate students; there's (probably) even less doubt about M-J A L's continued affiliation and identification with the mathematical community throughout his career. I, certainly, have never given up the effort and attempt to accomplish meaningful mathematical research; I don't have nothing to show for it and I've always continued learning. Moreover, I'm sure that the preceding sentence is far too narrow to encompass what ought to be called a 'mathematician'. At least and at any rate, such weighty matters ought to be referred to experts like Henri Poincaré and G. H. Hardy! N. Shum-Ish 10:15, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

I'm not interested in speculation. I asked for citations. Hardy has been dead for sixty years, and Poincaré for nearly a century, so we can't ask them. Thinking of yourself as a mathematician is one thing. Having a reputation as a mathematician is another. Statements in article space must be verifiable. That's policy. DavidCBryant 11:09, 13 March 2007 (UTC)