8 ms·
Even more incredible is that his own advisor refused to write him letters of recommendation upon graduation [1] After graduation, Zhang had trouble finding a
by whytai 4y ago
Even more incredible is that his own advisor refused to write him letters of recommendation upon graduation [1]
After graduation, Zhang had trouble finding an academic position. In a 2013 interview with Nautilus magazine, Zhang said he did not get a job after graduation. "During that period it was difficult to find a job in academics. That was a job market problem. Also, my advisor [Tzuong-Tsieng Moh] did not write me letters of recommendation." ... Moh claimed that Zhang never came back to him requesting recommendation letters. In a detailed profile published in The New Yorker magazine in February 2015, Alec Wilkinson wrote Zhang "parted unhappily" with Moh, and that Zhang "left Purdue without Moh's support, and, having published no papers, was unable to find an academic job".
In 2018, responding to reports of his treatment of Zhang, Moh posted an update on his website. Moh wrote that Zhang "failed miserably" in proving Jacobian conjecture, "never published any paper on algebraic geometry" after leaving Purdue, and "wasted 7 years of his [Zhang's] own life and my [Moh's] time".
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitang_Zhang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitang_Zhang
- gavagai691 4y agoYes, if you want to see something incredible (in both the literal sense and the usual sense), read https://www.math.purdue.edu/~ttm/ZhangYt.pdf https://www.math.purdue.edu/~ttm/ZhangYt.pdf (by Moh).
- ummonk 4y agoYeah I started reading that from the Wiki citation. Yikes. Academia is brutal.
- Firmwarrior 4y agoMan, it's so weird and pathetic All of these guys are probably a hundred times smarter than me or most of the other code monkeys working for the FANGMAN, but they're all squabbling over little 5-figure scraps of grant money.
- nequo 4y agoI think it’s their egos they’re squabbling over, not grant money.
- whytai 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre%27s_law In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake
- bigbacaloa 4y agoZhang evidently doesn't care about money at all. The same is true for many professonal mathematicians. Caring about money makes it difficult (not impossible) to do anything deep.
- m_nyongesa 4y agoIn the earlier version I saw (I guess it consists of the non-bold parts), he didn't mention as much negative stuff about Zhang. His claim that Zhang "want to be famous all the time" I regard with suspicion.
- lordnacho 4y ago> For some 10 years, I had recommended 100 mainland Chinese students to the department and all accepted by the department. I am always indebt to the trust of my judgements by the department. Only very few of them misbehaved, bit the hands which fed them, none of them intended to murder their parents/friends, almost all of them performed well and became well-liked. No murderers, great success!
- yding 4y agoIt's a reference to Brendt Christensen.
- smacke 4y agoProbably a reference to Yongfei Ci actually (https://dailyillini.com/news-stories/2014/06/20/yongfei-ci-sentenced-to-46-years-in-prison/ https://dailyillini.com/news-stories/2014/06/20/yongfei-ci-s...) UIUC is not having a great track record wrt grad student murderers o_O
- eclarkso 4y agoI doubt it, as the non-bolded portions were written in 2013, 4 years prior to the murder of Yingjing Zhang.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- MikePlacid 4y agoI’ve looked it up and wished I had not. ( Interestingly, every summary of the case in media and Wiki stops listing the evidence against him at his secretly taped confession to a girlfriend - confession that included some things absolutely not confirmed. The most convincing evidence to my eyes is the victim’s DNA in the blood found under the carpet and elsewhere there it has survived cleaning efforts. This is not mentioned anywhere except in the court recordings: https://news.wttw.com/sites/default/files/article/file-attachments/JT%20CHRISTENSEN%20%20VOLUME%208A%20%28Redacted%29.pdf https://news.wttw.com/sites/default/files/article/file-attac... . Kinda sad what is convincing these days ).
- warbler73 4y agoWow thanks so much. That is indeed "incredible" on many levels.
- lawrenceyan 4y agoIt's tragic how the relationship dynamics between Moh and Zhang almost resulted in the total write-off of Zhang and a loss of genius/talent, with nothing left but bitterness and animosity. I'm glad Zhang was able to find success despite his initial setbacks and from what it seems like in his recent interviews also let go of his bitterness/resentment (holding something like that in your heart can only ever hold you back). And though the power dynamics here were clearly unequal, I don't think it's fair to blame Moh entirely for what happened at Purdue. I think it's important to remember Moh is also human with all the complexity that comes along with that. In reading his published statement, even though there is no direct apology to Zhang, I sense that he does genuinely regret how things turned out. Perhaps one day, Zhang and Moh will be able to meet again and resolve/rekindle their relationship.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]