Academic Publishing paper mills

Bundesverdienst-Kümmerer am Bande

"Benign-by-design, circular economy in the plastics industry, biodegradable antibiotics - the sustainable design of chemistry is the central theme of Prof. Klaus Kümmerer's work. "

Listen to this article as podcast (spoken and recorded by Atro Tossavainen)

One of Germany’s greatest scientists of all times, Klaus Kümmerer, professor of chemistry at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg, has been awarded one of the nation’s highest prizes: Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande” (Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon). According to the announcement, it is the second of eight stages of the Order of Merit of Germany, in recognition of special services to the common good.

And Prof Kümmerer does a lot of good, especially in his capacity as Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier journal Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy. A lot of good for the circular economy and environment. Of papermills.

The ceremony took place in January 2024:

“Benign-by-design, circular economy in the plastics industry, biodegradable antibiotics – the sustainable design of chemistry is the central theme of Prof’s work. Klaus Kümmerer. The Lower Saxon Science Minister Falko Mohrs today awards Kümmerer the Cross of Merit for his teaching and research achievements to mark the bond of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Science Minister Falko Mohrs gave the laudatory speech at the awards ceremony:
“Prof. Klaus Kümmerer is characterized by the unification of excellent science, social commitment and a high degree of innovative strength in his work. With each of his research projects, he always keeps an eye on the practical benefits for the common good and the environment.[…]”

Kümmerer is considered a co-founder and designer of sustainable chemistry.”

In 2023, Kümmerer received the „Benign by Design“ award from the German chemistry society GDCh. Now, you probably wish to know what amazing achievements in circular economy and sustainable chemistry Prof Kümmerer blessed Germany and the rest of the planet with.

Let us start with his institutional profile, which celebrates two books published with a certain Dionysios Dionysiou, a Greek-American papermiller (who died in November 2023, read June 2024 Shorts):

As it happens, Dyonisiou had also been papermilling with a certain close associate of Prof Kümmerer, see Wang et al 2022. Which brings us to a a peculiar scientific conference RRB 2023 which took place in my beloved Riga, at the National Library of Latvia. I wrote about it in June 2023 Shorts.

Back then, Alexander Magazinov took issue with certain organisers and participants. Kümmerer was one member of the Scientific Advisory Board, and another was…

Rafael Luque, the Papermill King!

Elsevier chooses Papermills and Patriarchy, Chief Editor resigns

“Among these candidates that you “vetted” were people with no expertise in the field (either 0 or 1 publication), people with longer PubPeer profiles and more retractions than most people have articles on their CVs, and people whose names appear as authors on sold paper sites. ” – Jillian Goldfarb

At the RRB 2023 conference, Luque sported an affiliation with King Saud University, Saudi Arabia, rather fittingly he was sacked by his University of Cordoba in Spain for taking Saudi bribes. However, Luque’s real academic affiliation is at the russian University of Peoples’ Friendship (RUDN) in moscow, where he has a lab, thanks to his local papermilling buddy Leonid Voskressensky (see PubPeer). The ruscist affiliation was active in 2023 and is active today, but Luque chose not flaunt it in Latvia, for obvious reasons.

Magazinov informed the organisers of Luque’s publication history, and pointed out the Iranian papermilled trash Asadi et al 2022 in particular, with proof that it was sold on internet. But nobody cared.

Three European professors pocketing russian blood money as russian bombs blow Ukrainian children into shreds RUDN document dated 2024

You also see a certain Italian chemistry professor from University of Perugia, Luigi Vaccaro, an associate of Luque. Vaccaro hides his russian affiliation in his official CV, and he hid it in the following paper in Kümmerer’s journal, but Luque is proudly flaunting his RUDN affiliation:

Francesco Minio , Airovict Hernández Torriente , Alina M. Balu , Luigi Vaccaro , Sameh M. Osman , Rafael Luque , Tripti Chhabra Benign-by-design sustainable protocol for the synthesis of furosemide Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2024.101600 

Simnia avena: “There is no mention of NMR anywhere in the paper or Methods, except for the SI figures. Could the authors indicate what instrument was used, what solvent was used? For the crystallized furosemide, it appears the NMR was done in solution, so was it really “crystallized furosemide”?”

I presume the title pays homage to the earlier “benign-by-design” award Kümmerer received.

On the RUDN document above, there is a third colleague of Luque’s at in moscow. It is his regular coauthor, a certain Christophe Len. This professor at Chimie ParisTech (École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris) was also participating at RRB 2023 in Riga, although not listed as invited speaker or organiser. Len goes to all conferences, even and especially to predatory ones.

Source

Observe this preprint by Len, where Magazinov and Nick Wise provided evidence that it was sold on the internet:

Sabikeh Azimi , Muna Merza , Fathemeh Ghasemi , Hasan Ali Dhahi , Farid Baradarbarjastehbaf , Mehdi Moosavi , Pouya Ghamari Kargar , Christophe Len Green and Rapid and Instrumental One-Pot Method for the Synthesis of Imidazolines Having Potential Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Activity SSRN (2023) doi: 10.2139/ssrn.4412909 

This paper matches one whose authorship has been for sale on Telegram:”

If you wonder why papermills sell authorships on preprints: they don’t. But most publishers used to demand that COVID-19-related manuscripts were published as preprints during submission. When the authorships went on sale, Len’s papermill study was in peer review at a certain Elsevier journal, hence the preprint at the Elsevier server SSRN. Back then, Magazinov informed the RRB 2023 organisers that “According to the information on Len’s preprint, it has been submitted and underwent revision at “Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy” – a journal headed by Kümmerer.”

Well, guess what. Kümmerer did publish that fraudulent papermilled trash, on 5 June 2023:

Sabikeh Azimi, Muna S. Merza , Fatemeh Ghasemi , Hasan Ali Dhahi , Farid Baradarbarjastehbaf , Mehdi Moosavi , Pouya Ghamari Kargar , Christophe Len Green and rapid and instrumental one-pot method for the synthesis of imidazolines having potential anti-SARS-CoV-2 main protease activity Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2023.101136 

Simnia avena: “It is not possible for two different simulations of different systems to suddenly become identical or highly correlated in behavior after 70 ns.”

To punish Len even more, Kümmerer (as member of RRB Scientific Advisory Board) invited the French papermiller to give an “invited talk” at RRB 2024 conference in Brussels.

Screenshots,: above: RRB 2024 conference program, left: C. Len on X

Len and Luque are actually best friends, not only do they lots of publishing and editing together, they even raise children together! On the following paper in Kümmerer’s journal, the coauthor Thomas Len is Christophe Len’s son and Luque’s postdoc, read about this relationship in April 2024 Shorts.

Miriam Lopez Fernandez , Thomas Len, Juan Urbano , Alina Balu , Rafael Luque Transformation of furfural into dimorpholinocyclopentenone using Al-SBA-15 materials Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2024.101573

Look at this lovely papermill product in Prof Kümmerer’s journal, by Luque and Len Sr:

Kargar, P.G., Len, C., Luque, R. (2022). Cu/cellulose-modified magnetite nanocomposites as a highly active and selective catalyst for ultrasound-promoted aqueous 0-arylation Ullmann and sp-sp2 Sonogashira cross-coupling reactions. Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy, doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2022.100672.

Neodiprion demoides: “Fig. 6. Some unexpected repetitions in the XRD pattern are marked with blue, green and cyan boxes.

Orchestes quercus: “Fig. 4 top row: the two SEM images show an area of overlap that suggests a scale difference of approximately a factor two. The scale bars in the two images differ by a factor ~50.”

Will Kümmerer sue me if I insinuate he and Luque must be really close friends, and this is why nobody bothered to actually read this paper?

Maryam Akbari , Babak Karimi, Hamzeh Hassanaki Veisi , Rafael Luque Switchable cyclohexanone/cyclohexanol selectivity in room temperature aqueous hydrogenations of phenol using Au–Pd nanoparticles supported on a bimodal cubic N,S-doped mesoporous carbon Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2024.101572 

Simnia avena: “There is a label for a 220 peak, but you have to believe that it is there:”

Also very recently, Kümmerer invited Luque to publish this position paper on research policy in his journal (this time Luque hid his Moscow affiliation and used only an Ecuador one):

Rosaria Ciriminna , Matteo Formenti , Cristina Della Pina , Rafael Luque, Mario Pagliaro Green chemistry in Italy and Spain (1999–2019): Research policy lessons Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2024.101520 

By you probably missed Len! Here he is with Luque again, hot off the Chinese papermill’s press and approved by EiC Prof Kümmerer:

Deyang Zhao , Guihong Guo , Qikai Si , Zhenglong Yang , Ting Su , Jianwei Zhao , Christophe Len, Rafael Luque , Yanbin Xu , Hongwu Zhang MOX-TiO2 (M=Pt, Pd, Ru) for alcoholysis reaction from furfuryl alcohol to ethyl levulinate Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2024.101584 

Simnia avena: “Can the authors help explain Fig. 6. (a∼d) […] In all cases, the histograms of particle sizes are very narrow, with 95% of particles in the 8 to 13 nm range. However, when looking at the particles in the various panels, they do not match at all. Moreover, by eye, it is clear from panels c-g-k that the size is close to 20 nm (the scale bar) and often bigger.”

Kümmerer’s journal is always ready to receive Luque and Len. They don’t even have to pretend to make any sense.

Alex De Nazaré De Oliveira, Massimo Melchiorre, Ana Alice Farias Da Costa , Linéia Soares Da Silva , Rutiléia De Jesus Paiva , Amelie Auvigne, Weiyi Ouyang, Rafael Luque , Geraldo Narciso Da Rocha Filho , Renata Coelho Rodrigues Noronha, Roberto Esposito, Luís Adriano Santos Do Nascimento , Christophe Len Glycerol: A green solvent for synthetic chemistry Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2024.101656

able 3. Physicochemical properties and toxicity data of glycerol
Simnia avena: “In the glycerol molecule, there is no chloride or sulfate or heavy metals.”
“I wonder what the design of methodology for review writing is, or what models were produced, and why it required 9 coauthors doing that and only that.”
Fig. 2. Commercial consumption of glycerol (industrial sectors and volumes)
“y scale is absolutely nonsensical.”

Time to meet another friend of Luque and Len’s. In 2018, the two buddies edited a Frontiers special issue together. Luque and Len contributed their own papermilled trash, and so did their papermilling friend: Rajender S Varma, who was more recently kicked out at the University of Olomouc in Czechia. Read about him here:

I, Rajender Varma, Highly Cited Researcher

“I could not comprehend the situation where a university picks up on individuals with an extraordinary and sterling performance and basically destroy one of the top European institutions. ” – Raj Varma

Raj Varma is also a friend of our hero, Prof Kümmerer. We can assume that since Varma not only publishes in the journal Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy but also remains a valuable member of the editorial board there, despite all the scandals with papermilling and fake affiliations (read May 2024 Shorts),.

Source

Remember the 2023 conference in Latvia? Kümmerer and Luque likely travelled to Riga together: on 22-24 May 2023 the former was the Conference Chair an Elsevier-sponsored “Green and Sustainable Chemistry” conference in Dresden, Germany, and a member of the scientific committee was… well, Rafi Luque of course. Elsevier removed that information now, but here is an archived backup. Varma and Vaccaro were also members of that Dresden committee member, maybe they joined the boys in Riga also.

In 2019, Kümmerer organised and chaired a conference in China, Luque was keynote speaker and scientific committee member. Also in 2019, Kümmerer and Varma edited a special issue together, on “Selected papers from the 3rd Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference 2018”, as it happens at another Elsevier journal which Kümmerer is Editor-in-Chief of: Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry. Luque published in that issue of course, and Len published there with Varma! Varma is of course member of the editorial board also at that other journal of Kümmerer’s:

Source

But let’s return to Kommerer’s main journal, Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy, because look what his buddy Varma published there:

Mehrdad Khatami , Rajender S. Varma , Niloofar Zafarnia , Hajar Yaghoobi , Mina Sarani , Vinod G. Kumar Applications of green synthesized Ag, ZnO and Ag/ZnO nanoparticles for making clinical antimicrobial wound-healing bandages Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy (2018) doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2018.08.001 

Tetraphleps parallelus: “Fig. 3. Abnormal X-ray diffraction pattern of (a) silver”

What else do we find? The retractions-striken papermiller Pau Loke Show with value-added and sustainable nonsense references:

Afifa , Nazim Hussain , Zulqarnain Baqar , Mehvish Mumtaz , Ahmed H. El-Sappah , Pau Loke Show , Hafiz M.N. Iqbal , Sunita Varjani , Muhammad Bilal Bioprospecting fungal-derived value-added bioproducts for sustainable pharmaceutical applications Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2022.100755 

Show is an integral part of the garbage vortex of Jörg Rinklebe and Christian Sonne, read here:

If you wonder how Show managed to infiltrate Kümmerer’s journal:

Clue Nr 1: the Hong Kong professor Carol Sze Ki Lin has joint papers with Show and Rinklebe’s acolyte Yong Sik Ok, and she also happens to be editorial board member of Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy. Also see her PubPeer record, there’s even Lin’s first-author paper with Luque as last author!

Clue Nr 2: Sunita Varjani, Lin’s faculty colleague at City University of Hong Kong and coauthor on Show’s paper above, is definitely a person to run away from. But Kümmerer values her as editorial board member of Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy. Varjani’s qualification for this job are her huge PubPeer record, many of these papers are with Ashok Pandey, who was sacked as Editor-in-Chief of another Elsevier journal, slapped with at least 35 retractions, and not just for papermilling, but also for peer review sabotage and authorship extortion (read July 2024 Shorts and The Hindu).

But not only! Varjani is also member of the Sonne/Rinklebe garbage vortex, which led her to publish not just with Sh*tShow, Sonne, Damià Barceló, Huu Hao Ngo, Su Shiung Lam, Mortaza Aghbashlo and Meisam Tabatabaei (Varjani et al 2022), but also with Finland’s Highly Cited Researcher Mika Sillanpää (Hadiya et al 2022), who was sacked for sexual harassment, massive theft, bullying and of course also research misconduct.

And if this wasn’t enough for Kümmerer: Varjani also published (Preeti et al 2022), or rather bought papers from none other but Gunasekaran Manogaran, owner of a major Indian papermill exposed by Nick Wise (read in Undark). And with Uttpal Anand (Anand et al 2023, with Barcelo!), who runs a papermill together with Abhijit Dey. Read here:

Clue Nr 3: Mukesh Kumar Awasthi, professor at Northwest A&F University in China, another member of Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy editorial board. Awasthi is not really the right person to let into your journal. Here is Awasthi with Pau Loke Sh*tShow and other people who paid to join the adventure towards green recovery of sweet potatoes:

Farhana Iylia Fatinee Mohd Yusree , Angela Paul Peter , Nurul Ainina Binti Zulkifli , Mohd Zuhair Mohd Nor, Mohd Salahuddin Mohd Basri , Mohd Noriznan Mokhtar , Mukesh Kumar Awasthi , Pau Loke Show Towards green recovery of β-amylase from slurry of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) of VitAto variety via liquid biphasic system Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2021.100579 

But Awasthi is toxic for yet another reason: he isyet another close associate of Ashock Pandey. Together they have been editing each other’s papers and also publishign together, see Awasthi’s formidable PubPeer record.

Another unsavoury editorial board member of Kümmerer’s journal is Vijay Kumar Thakur of Biorefining & Advanced Materials Research Centre in Edinburgh, UK. Thakur was seen publishing papermill trash with Awais Bokhari and Dai-Viet N. Vo (Show/Rinklebe/Sonne garbage vortex members), Raj Varma or the late Jiří Jaromír Klemeš (who continues papermilling after his death) . Also, Thakur published with a British ghoul named John F Kennedy – not the dead US president, read the last chapter here:

Now that you see what toxic characters Kümmerer installed as editors in his journal, let’s see what else got published in his Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy.

Some lazy, lazy stuff, but Prof Kümmerer didn’t notice or didn’t mind, probably because one author, Enrico Drioli, is an Italian professor:

Shahid Ali Khan , Saba Akram , Anum Rashid , Zulfiqar Ahmad Rehan, Sher Bahadar Khan , Enrico Drioli Synthesis, characterization, and bioactivity evaluation of PES-Ni-SiO2 nanocomposite membranes cum stabilization of Ag NPs for nitrophenols hydrogenation and dyes discoloration studies Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2022.100887 

Thallarcha lechrioleuca: “Fig.2 Four identical patterns representing different samples (from the top down)”

Here is another fake paper by Drioli and his Pakistani friends, but with another publisher.

How about some nanoparticles from a desert shrub to clean up water, but you need to draw your spectra by hand to achieve the desired result:

Ajay Kumar , Deepak Pathania , Nidhi Gupta , Pushap Raj , Arush Sharma Photo-degradation of noxious pollutants from water system using Cornulaca monacantha stem supported ZnFe2O4 magnetic bio-nanocomposite Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy (2020) doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2020.100290 

Hoya camphorifolia: “Fig 1a, “FTIR spectra of AC/ZF nanocomposite”. What happened here?”

Feel free to look up other fabrications by Ajay Kumar and Arush Sharma, especially Kumar et al 2021. More amazing science from India, the authors added a thought on “the greenness of the present protocol” because this is what Kümmerer’s journal demands:

Mohd Umar Khan , Zeba N. Siddiqui Niobia supported sulfated bismuth oxide nanorods (S-Bi2O3@Nb2O5): Acidic properties, catalytic activity and green metrics analysis Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy (2021) doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2021.100542 

Tetraphleps parallelus: “Fig. 7.Identical and abnormal XRD pattern of (b) Bi2O3 NRs (c) S-Bi2O3@Nb2O5 (d) Recycled catalyst”

Green enough?

Now, something truly impressive, but surely no reason for retraction. A cheap Indian papermill couldn’t be bothered to sell different fabrications to different customers. Thus, everyone got the same figures. Send this green corrosion to me, give me the ficus!

Rajesh Haldhar, Dwarika Prasad , Akhil Saxena, Raman Kumar Experimental and theoretical studies of Ficus religiosa as green corrosion inhibitor for mild steel in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 solution Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy (2018) doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2018.07.002 

For dessert, banana peels from green and eco-friendly Egyptian papermills, Guten Appetit, Professor Kümmerer!

Amr Hosny Hashem , Ebrahim Saied , Mohamed Sayed Hasanin Green and ecofriendly bio-removal of methylene blue dye from aqueous solution using biologically activated banana peel waste Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy (2020) doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2020.100333 

Orchestes quercus: “Fig. 4(c) and (d) overlap, only the SEM magnification is different. The descriptions and EDX spectra differ.”

Also appreciate this fabrication by Amr Hosny Hashem an Ebrahim Saied in MDPI.

An attractive and “natural” target for fraudsters

“In the various excellent texts on paper mills the question is discussed why Naunyn-Schmiedebergs Archives of Pharmacology has become a target for fake papers. I oppose the assumption that we simply want to fill pages with pseudo-scientific content. We actually look for quality and good science.” – Prof Dr Roland Seifert, Editor-in-Chief

You probably now see why it had to be Kümmerer whom the German nation had to make Knight of the Federal Order of Merit, on ribbon no less. Because Kümmerer and his high-publishing associates do so much for the environment, saving the planet with each paper, you see. Why not a Nobel Prize next? Two in fact, the second one for literature.

Kümmerer did not reply to my emails, and neither did his university. Indeed, who am I compared to his eminent associates Rafael Luque, Christophe Len, Rajender Varma and others celebrated above.


Donate!

If you are interested to support my work, you can leave here a small tip of $5. Or several of small tips, just increase the amount as you like (2x=€10; 5x=€25). Your generous patronage of my journalism will be most appreciated!

€5.00

25 comments on “Bundesverdienst-Kümmerer am Bande

  1. Ivana Budinska's avatar
    Ivana Budinska

    Leuphana University of Lüneburg has many of these professors. This is just a showcase of the tip of the Iceberg.

    Like

  2. tripeiropreocupado's avatar

    Leonid,

    Just a small correction. Enrico Drioli is an Italian Professor,

    Institute on Membranes and Modelling of Chemical Reactors, CNR, and Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials, University of Calabria, 87030, Arcavacata di Rende, CS, Italy

    Regards,

    Tripeiro Preocupado

    Like

  3. omanbenson's avatar
    omanbenson

    How long until that other great German scientists, Jörg Rinklebe, gets an award! Can’t take much longer now with his amazing work!

    Like

  4. Albert Varonov's avatar
    Albert Varonov

    Additionally, there is no way this linear regression with 4 points only to render a squared linear correlation coefficient of 0.9994 with 1 point visibly completely off the line.

    Like

  5. magazinovalex's avatar
    magazinovalex

    Somewhat related: yet another edition of the terrific InterNanoPoland conference has been announced.

    Last year’s edition featured a plenary lecture by Rafael Luque, “currently a Freelancer Professor, holding various positions.”

    This year, it will very likely be Omid Mahian, “a member of the Editorial Board of Energy (Elsevier), Renewable Energy (Elsevier), and Journal of Nanostructures in Chemistry (Springer), a senior associate editor of Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (Springer), and some other journals,” – as one easily can guess, all of them are papermill dumpsters. Russian and Chinese affiliations are no impediment, the former can be discretely omitted, the latter is proudly displayed on the conference profile.

    Like

    • Leonid Schneider's avatar

      When I click on speakers, I see nothing. Probably nobody to boast with :-b

      Like

      • Anonymous's avatar
        Anonymous

        That’s interesting, when I click on the speakers I don’t see any names too, but if I do a google search for “omid mahian internanopoland” I can see the part Magazinov shared: https://internanopoland.com/speaker/prof-omid-mahian/ . Maybe he is the surprise speaker. He will suddenly show up during the conference break and say “surprise fellows”, of course it depends on his organizational skills and I think his organizational skills are very good. Someone who is a visiting researcher in London and Tomsk at the same time has good organizational skills.

        Mahian’s visiting position at Imperial appears to run through 2021. His visiting position is so interesting that during this time Mahian changed the university where he was a full professor in China and became a full professor at another Chinese university, Ningbo University, and took a visiting position in Russia in parallel. This is something I see a lot with Iranian papermiller researchers, they can easily change positions and countries in very short periods of time, which an ordinary researcher cannot do. Moreover, Mahian’s university in the UK is one of the best universities in the UK. And of course, although he appears to be a visitor, his profile on Scopus identifies him as an affiliate of Imperial College rather than Ningbo University: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=36806633900

        He seems to be right, the cooler the university, the more sought after you are in papermill business. Why would he go to Ningbo, which has a real affiliation, instead of Imperial? After all, the colleagues he does these things with are also his competitors, and almost all of them have positions at cool universities in Europe and Canada.

        Like

      • magazinovalex's avatar
        magazinovalex

        Meanwhile, in China, Mahian moved from Xi’an Jiaotong to Ningbo, which is (if I understand the local peculiarities correctly) a lower-tier institution. Why could that be?

        Like

      • Anonymous's avatar
        Anonymous

        Mahian described his professor position in Xia’ Jiatong as a “young talent professor”, at least that’s how I saw it in open sources. When I searched for Young Talent, I understood it as an extension of the “Thousand Talents” program that the Chinese government has developed mainly to bring Chinese researchers from abroad back to China, which is also given to promising foreign researchers. Of course, my knowledge may be incomplete.

        So, Mahian probably went to Xi’an Jiatong with his impressive publication record. But again, from what I understand from this program, this position is not permanent. They can continue depending on performance. It seems that the Chinese are more aware than the Europeans, so Mahian may not have stayed at Xi’an Jiatong but went to a lower ranked university. Of course, given that he has been using the Imperial brand since 2021, he may be looking for positions in Europe or Canada rather than in China like the others.

        No doubt it will be better for him to go to the West because another one of his frequent collaborators is doing wonders in the West. For example, I can see this when I read the “View Full Biography” of Arabkoohsar, who is also on the editorial board of Renewable Energy. Whoever reads this text says “wow”, why would Mahian waste his skills in China? It would not be abnormal if he wanted to take advantage of Iran popularity in Western universities.

        A footnote, I just realized Arabkoohsar identifies himself as a Professor in his biography, but on the DTU site he is listed as a Senior Researcher (July 2024). Either he didn’t care or he thinks he’ll get an academic promotion soon, which wouldn’t be surprising given the academic work I’ve come across from Scandinavia. Scandinavia likes such profiles.

        Like

      • Anonymous's avatar
        Anonymous

        Feel the need to make an update: Mahian organized a conference in Ningbo in May 2024. He was the Chair. He was also one of the speakers. When I look at his biography, I can see that his professorship title is still with the “young talent” program, so he has the same title in Ningbo as he had in Xi’an Jiaotong. Of course, Ningbo is a lower-ranked university.

        Like

      • Anonymous's avatar
        Anonymous

        A new update: In one of my comments in July I mentioned that Arabkoohsar’s editor profile in Renewable Energy journal defines him as professor but his university profile says senior researcher. I am updating this information. According to his LinkedIn profile and DTU profile, the Danes have recognised Arabkoohsar’s excellent papermill performance and made him a professor.

        It is noteworthy in the LinkedIn post that Denmark and the European Union have so far supported the work of this wonderful and esteemed professor with 6 million euros. Unbelievable.

        Omid Mahian, I’m really sorry about you. I think your choice of countries was a bit wrong. Although you are both ambitious papermill researchers, Ahmad became a professor in DTU Denmark with about 1/3 of your citation count and was awarded 6 million euros by the Danes and the EU. You are still in Ningbo and looking for additional affiliations from Thailand, Russia and Iran. I’m sorry. Life’s not fair, is it?

        Like

    • omanbenson's avatar
      omanbenson

      How does that even work, a ‘freelance’ professor? lol

      Like

      • Multiplex's avatar
        Multiplex

        Good old Professor Moriarty is the role model (“consulting criminal” in the Sherlock BBC series)

        Like

  6. Multiplex's avatar
    Multiplex

    2024 marks “Zeitenwende” in German academia. The so-called education minister has nothing better to do than preparing withdrawing of funding as a weapon against unpleasant professors. German students try to defend academic freedom, however, they hardly have a chance against Stark-Watzinger and her friends from the Axel/Friede Springer smear press:

    https://mittelbau.net/aktuell/

    Instead, students and honest researchers are insulted by “Bundesverdienstkreuz”-celebrations for paper”müllers”. This is the beginning of the end for Germany as a science nation.

    Like

    • Jones's avatar

      ‘This is the beginning of the end for Germany as a science nation.’

      That train has left the station, back when trains in Germany still left stations.

      Like

      • Multiplex's avatar
        Multiplex

        Yeah, see also Sabine Hossenfelder’s IT HAS COME TO THIS-Video on youtube…

        Like

    • lhac05's avatar

      What are you smoking?

      The withdrawing of funding would have been directed against pseudo-scientific social “scientists” who are pushing anti-semitic propaganda under the disguise of “science”.

      Those people are not scientists, but thinly veiled political activists.

      The less funding those people receive, the better for reals science.

      Like

  7. lhac05's avatar

    Well, in my opinion this kind of researcher gets this kind of recognition (award) because it fits into the Zeitgeist of the current German government and political elite.

    Green/red, post-modernist, “everything is a social construct and negotiable”, “soziale Gerechtigkeit” and all that stuff. Call it “woke”.

    Something like “Benign/Green (Chemistry/Pharmaceuticals) by Design” is simply irresistible for those people, and some scientists will exactly offer what is asked for and get a “Bundesverdienstkreuz”.

    Play stupid games, win stupid prices.

    If the corresponding author is from a developing country, all the better, since they are high on the “progressive stack”. The packaging is more important than the content if everything is stated is negotiable anyway.

    I wonder why you are surprised. You often have stated opinions quite in line with woke policies in the past. More on the feminist side and against old white men, if I remember correctly.

    After all, the collection of the above things against Mr. Kümmerer looks a bit like “guilt by association”. Why would you shoot so strongly against Mr. Kümmerer when all he does is giving a platform to some less privileged scientists and supports the development of “benign by design” production methodologies in developing countries?

    Of course we will still buy the drugs from China, where they are produced in the old-mannered way, but at least we will have the good conscience that “dirty chemistry production” has been forced out of Germany!

    Like

    • Leonid Schneider's avatar

      I agree. Those woke Greens are the main culprit for everything, even research fraud.
      Now, in the good olden times when white men of values ruled, gays were a perversion of nature, smoking was good and proper even in doctor’s office, pesticides and radioactive waste were SAFE, and there was NO climate change because Fossil Fuel industry had science on its side!
      Fucking woke Greens indeed.

      Like

      • Leonid Schneider's avatar

        On a serious note. Much of cancer research is fake and irreproducible. But do you arrive here to reveal that cancer is a myth? A disease which doesn’t exist, but a conspiracy by the woke Greens to steal public money for their fictional”cancer research”?.
        Have you considered the crazy theory that where’s money, there’s fraud?
        Green technologies or cancer research.

        Like

Leave a comment