Intellectual Fraud: Crisis Allegedly Rocks “Philip Emeagwali Myths”—Reports
New York [RR] New York—supercomputing applications, faster speed measured by mega-capacities makes the global community much smaller more than any other time in human history, so is the speed of accessibilites of informations, RepublicReport has gathered....
Recently, there have been intellectual pundits trading claims and counter-claims of alleged discussion of one Emeagwali’s academic credentials, which others call out as intellectual jealousy and envy, others say, “the man is an intellectual fraud”. Reports say, purported intellectual observers like Chioma Ezeilo which others declared as intellectual competitors sees Emeagwali academic record, simply: “pack of lies, half-truths, self-promotional and self-authentication”, RR has learnt.
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This page briefly addresses some specific claims appearing on Emeagwali’s self-promotional website and elsewhere. For a more in-depth discussion of Emeagwali’s “outright lies, half-truths, and numerous unsubstantiated claims,” see the article Self-Promotion and Self-Authentication: “Father of the Internet” by Chioma Ezeilo.
MYTH #1:
Emeagwali made the “world’s fastest computation” in 1989
Each year since 1987, the judges for the annual Gordon Bell competition have given out multiple prizes for supercomputing applications, usually including one for performance (fastest speed), and one forprice/performance (best speed/cost ratio; specifically, “price-performance ratio as measured in megaflop/s per dollar on a genuine application”).
Despite what you may have read on the Internet, the 1989 prize for the fastest performance was awarded not to Emeagwali, but to another entrant:
In the performance category, we awarded the prize to a team from Mobil Research and Development and Thinking Machines Corp. [...] Their solution of a seismic data-processing problem ran at almost 6 Gflops on a CM-2 Connection Machine.
“Special Report: 1989 Gordon Bell Prize,” IEEE Software, May 1990, p. 101
The winning speed of 6 Gflops was almost double that of Emeagwali’s entry (3.1 Gflops, a speed that Emeagwali has repeatedly misrepresented as the “world’s fastest”). The Mobil/TMC team achieved the best price-performance ratio too, but since no entry was allowed more than one prize, the price/performance award passed to Emeagwali (who also used a CM-2 Connection Machine) even though his score in that category was about 20% worse than the leading score:
We awarded the price/performance prize to Philip Emeagwali [...] His model ran at a price/performance of slightly less than 400 Mflops per $1 million. While the Mobil/TMC team achieved almost 500 Mflops per $1 million, we decided to award only one prize per entry.
“Special Report: 1989 Gordon Bell Prize,” IEEE Software, May 1990, p. 101
See the yearly results for the performance and price/performance categories. In no year did Emeagwali achieve what he claims he did.
MYTH #2:
Emeagwali won computing’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize
In spite of efforts by Emeagwali and his admirers to hype up his $1000 Gordon Bell award as the “Nobel Prize” of computing, the rest of the computing world continues to associate that lofty label with the Turing Award, which Emeagwali has never won. The Gordon Bell prize, however, is just one of many other annual computing awards, respectable but not at all comparable to either the Nobel Prize or the Turing Award in prestige or prize money. Nor are the selection criteria analogous: Emeagwali was awarded for his performance in an annual competition, not in recognition of lasting contributions to his field.
MYTH #3:
Emeagwali is a “Father of the Internet”
1. Emeagwali’s paternity claims to the Internet are judged and found baseless. Emeagwali has not shown any evidence that he was involved with ARPA or any other research organization or company connected with the genesis of the Internet, nor did he express his ideas in technical journals or any other channel through which he could have influenced the development of the Internet during its formative stages.
2. Is there a father of the Internet? A discussion of the main contenders: JCR Licklider, Bob Taylor, Paul Baran, Donald Davies, and Lawrence Roberts.
MYTH #4:
The “Connection Machine” was invented by Emeagwali
A few Web sources expand the fallacy that Emeagwali created the fastest computer program, insisting that he was also responsible for the massively parallel supercomputer on which the program ran. However, the 65,000-processor “Connection Machine” that allowed such speedy computations was actually the brainchild of Danny Hillis and was built by Thinking Machines Corporation, the company Hillis co-founded. The fact is extensively documented on the web and is so well established that I won’t devote more attention to it.
MYTH #5:
Emeagwali has lots of patents or patent applications
The number of Emeagwali’s patents or patent applications is sometimes claimed to be as high as 30. However, a search of the USPTO and esp@cenet patent databases (as of September 2003) reveals the true number to be zero. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which has a fully searchable online database for all U.S. patents since 1976 as well as all current applications, simply has nothing on file for Emeagwali.
MYTH #6:
“Dr.” Emeagwali?
Emeagwali is frequently referred to on his own and other websites as “Dr. Philip Emeagwali” or simply “Dr. Emeagwali.” Though he did in fact enroll in a PhD program at the University of Michigan, he did not get the degree after failing his qualification examinations twice and having his thesis rejected by a committee of faculty members. Emeagwali subsequently sued the university, alleging civil rights violations and racial discrimination. His case was dismissed without trial. When Emeagwali appealed to a higher court, a three-judge panel rejected his discrimination claims unanimously.
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Amiel, Written By
With all due respect, I am very disappointed in your insistence that we honor Emeagwali’s true “achievements” even after confirming for yourself that the man is indeed a fraud of immense proportion, a self-promoting genius who is, in his claimed field of expertise, a mediocre at best. I can understand Ikhide’s frustration. The “debate” on Emeagwali’s intellectual fraud has long been settled in the Nigerian cyberspace. Only the most fanatical Nigerian and African American sentimental (as opposed to a rational) investors in black scientific heroism, still take the fool seriously. And, of course, our people back home, for whom even the mere fact of foreign residency is a validation, let alone one that is backed by aggressively deceptive self promotion. Okay, let’s do what you’re asking us to do and strip away the lies, deceptions, exaggerations, false claims, and the entire intellectual pyramid scheme as someone called Emeagwali’s internet based edifice of fraud. When we are done with that, we’re left with:
1. A guy who FAILED his PhD qualifying exam TWICE at my alma mater, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
2. A guy whose doctoral research was subsequently evaluated by internal and external examiners and declared substandard.
3. A guy whose research won a minor THIRD PLACE prize in a very narrow field of applied computing. He was bumped to first place only when the teams ahead of him with higher computing speed won another prize and therefore forfeited the category to Emeagwali. In other words, he “won” by default. The prize had nothing to do with the internet or even computing as a field. It was for application of computing to oil exploration.
4. A guy who has no single published paper in a peer reviewed publication in his field
5. A guy who has no single patent or “patent pending” as he claims
6. A guy who has managed through internet trickery to get many media organizations, especially the black press, to buy into and as a result, validate his hoax. He then cites those naive, ignorant press validations, recycling them through links, which then show up on google and are then picked up by naive, hero-hunting black folks all over the world. As a fraud, it is very clever, but it is still a fraud and a huge one at that.
7. A guy who has parlayed his falsehoods into all kinds of lucrative speaking engagements in black America, Nigeria, and the Caribbean, deceiving our people who are hungry for heroes and collecting their hard earned money to make them feel good about themselves.
8. A guy who routinely goes around calling himself professor and Dr but who has never taught a university class, failed his PhD, and is not an academic.
I can go on, but let me not bore you with that your own research has revealed to you already. So, here you have a guy whose only achievement is the Gordon Bell Prize ($1000), which he won by default after coming THIRD and which he fraudulently calls “the Nobel Prize of Computing.” I put it to you that there are THOUSANDS of Nigerians whose research have won such narrow prizes in their fields and won not by default or by coming THIRD but by beating the competition. They don’t make noise or self-promote. They don’t lie about themselves. They don’t call themselves “Africa’s greatest scientist,” “father of the internet,” etc. Even on this list, there are many scientists who have won more prestigious prizes and awards. Our own Joseph Igietseme recently led a team of scientists at the prestigious CDC to win a highly coveted award in the field of biomedical research. The man did not grab a megaphone to announce that he was the greatest African scientist alive.
Has Nigeria honored the genuine achievers in our midst? How about our own Oga Falola, has he been given a national award let alone being put on a postage stamp? How about Pius Adesanmi and many others who have been making us proud by hauling in prestigious literary prizes from across the world; have they been as much as recognized in Nigeria?
If we’re desperate for heroes, why don’t we honor genuine ones? Why validate liars and frauds like Emeagwali who have actually brought dishonor to the country as their claims have been serially debunked and have been sometimes generalized to Nigerians and “their 419 ways”? Remember that every time their false claims are debunked their nationality and Africanness are referenced. How can that be good for a country that has genuine scientific pioneers working in the most prestigious and cutting edge scientific institutions in the world (CDC, NASA, etc).
As we speak, there is another fraud who has similarly cast a spell on home audiences, hauling in cash and recognition. Dr. Gabriel Oyibo self-describes as a five time Nobel Prize nominee even though Nobel nominations are not revealed until at least a hundred years or so, and even though his peers cannot even vouch for the validity of his bizarre claims, which reside at the confusing intersection of religion, metaphysics, African history and mythology, and physics!
A trained physicist, the man, who cannot even hold down an academic job and has no impressive research pedigree to speak of, claims that he has invented a theory of everything, which he calls GAGUT! The Nigerian national assembly issued a declaration honoring him as a great African scientist! He, too, is on a Nigerian postal stamp!
Oyibo is in some respect even worse than Emeagwali since he actually has a PhD and used to have an adjunct teaching position that gives him a perfect cover to perpetrate his deception. At least Emeagwali is a good motivational public speaker and writer (which I think is his actual calling in life). The GAGUT man speaks in an incomprehensible metaphysical language that is clearly a sign of lunacy.
A country that honors frauds and ignores true achievers and truthful, quiet heroes deserves what is happening to her.
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