本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛“Lyons-Weiler describes himself as having been an “evolutionary biologist.” That made me curious. So I wandered over to his LinkedIn page. There, I learned that he did apparently earn a PhD in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation Biology from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1997. He then did a postdoctoral fellowship in Computational Molecular Biology at Penn State University from 1997-2000. So far, so normal.
Then he did have a faculty position at the University of Massachusetts Lowell from 1999 to 2002. Oddly enough, this seems to overlap somewhat with his time as a fellow at Penn State. Be that as it may, he didn’t last long there, only three years. This suggests to me that something odd happened. Usually, new faculty in the biomedical sciences is given around five years to acquire funding, become independent, and earn tenure. On the other hand, he says that he established “a Center for Bioinformatics, taught undergraduate & graduate courses (biology, genetics, bioinformatics)” and helped “researchers w/microarray data and developed web applications for high-throughput data analysis.” This does not sound like a tenure-track position, as there is no mention of independent research or running a lab. Lyons-Weiler then moved on to the University of Pittsburgh, where he remained for twelve years and in 2007 became director of the Bioinformatics Analysis Core there until the core closed in 2014, according to him due to state budget cuts.
Lyons-Weiler touts his career as a scientist to make it seem as though his antivaccine claims are more valid, even though they were not. ”
As Skeptical Raptor points out in their recent blog on Weiler:
“…nothing he has done is even peripherally related to vaccines.”
The blog goes on to discuss his qualifications as a “scientist”:
Using the term “scientist” to describe someone who hasn’t done real science, especially with respect to vaccines, seems strange. I want to see the first authorship on a body of papers where clinical trials, epidemiological studies, or basic scientific research are described and analyzed that focuses on vaccines. The anti-vaccine world might want to tout James Lyons-Weiler as a scientist, but he doesn’t do basic scientific research, so that is a title that is probably undeserved.
The vaccineswork blog is equally intrigued about Weiler’s mysterious past and has a theory:
“I have a pet theory that something happened at his last job and he had to leave in disgrace. Finding this niche, in the antivax world, is his last ditch attempt at making a living. “
To summarize James Lyons-Weiler has no qualifications in any field related to vaccines yet uses his PhD to make it seem like he does.
Of course, the “PHD” is right there on his Facebook “fan” page (ignore the old picture he uses from when Bush was in the White House):更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
Then he did have a faculty position at the University of Massachusetts Lowell from 1999 to 2002. Oddly enough, this seems to overlap somewhat with his time as a fellow at Penn State. Be that as it may, he didn’t last long there, only three years. This suggests to me that something odd happened. Usually, new faculty in the biomedical sciences is given around five years to acquire funding, become independent, and earn tenure. On the other hand, he says that he established “a Center for Bioinformatics, taught undergraduate & graduate courses (biology, genetics, bioinformatics)” and helped “researchers w/microarray data and developed web applications for high-throughput data analysis.” This does not sound like a tenure-track position, as there is no mention of independent research or running a lab. Lyons-Weiler then moved on to the University of Pittsburgh, where he remained for twelve years and in 2007 became director of the Bioinformatics Analysis Core there until the core closed in 2014, according to him due to state budget cuts.
Lyons-Weiler touts his career as a scientist to make it seem as though his antivaccine claims are more valid, even though they were not. ”
As Skeptical Raptor points out in their recent blog on Weiler:
“…nothing he has done is even peripherally related to vaccines.”
The blog goes on to discuss his qualifications as a “scientist”:
Using the term “scientist” to describe someone who hasn’t done real science, especially with respect to vaccines, seems strange. I want to see the first authorship on a body of papers where clinical trials, epidemiological studies, or basic scientific research are described and analyzed that focuses on vaccines. The anti-vaccine world might want to tout James Lyons-Weiler as a scientist, but he doesn’t do basic scientific research, so that is a title that is probably undeserved.
The vaccineswork blog is equally intrigued about Weiler’s mysterious past and has a theory:
“I have a pet theory that something happened at his last job and he had to leave in disgrace. Finding this niche, in the antivax world, is his last ditch attempt at making a living. “
To summarize James Lyons-Weiler has no qualifications in any field related to vaccines yet uses his PhD to make it seem like he does.
Of course, the “PHD” is right there on his Facebook “fan” page (ignore the old picture he uses from when Bush was in the White House):更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net