Finally, mass media is catching up

Breaking news ----

Nihon Keizai (abbrev. Nikkei) Shimbun, one of the largest newspapers and probably the most important financial newspaper in Japan, reported problems of "Assistant Professors of the University of Tokyo". The web article is here (in Japanese). In the printed evening issue of November 9th (Monday), more details are given.

Although Nikkei does not give the name of the person explicitly, it describes the person as

• Male Assistant Professor in his 30s, at School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo
• Obtained Ph. D. in Architecture from the University of Tokyo, in 2003
• Belonged to JAXA as a researcher on termed contract, until 2005
• Recruited by the University of Tokyo as "Joshu" in 2005, and "Jokyo" in 2007
• Has written books on the space etc.
• Appeared in various media
• Claimed being the "first Turkish Astronaut Candidate", presenting a photo of himself wearing NASA spacesuit

Well, that should be more than enough to specify the person. You will also find that all of the above descriptions are completely consistent with what has been discussed in this blog.

Nikkei article reports that JAXA removed 4 papers from the activity report for the year 2003 because "their existence could not be proved". According to JAXA, in one of the 4 papers, the name of an author of an existing paper was replaced by his name. Another paper was claimed to be published in "Physical Review Letters" (PRL), one of the most respected journals in physics, but it cannot be found in any issue of PRL. Well, they are not news at all, for the readers of this blog :)

The Nikkei article, nevertheless, gives several interesting new information. According to the article, NASA commented that "There is no such fact (that Dr. Anilir is an Astronaut Candidate). Now the issue is investigated by NASA security office."

Moreover, Nikkei published comments by Dr. Anilir himself about the problems. According to the article, concerning the paper in which he replaced different person's name by his name, he claimed that he "wrote an article with the same content in Turkish." Concerning the non-existent paper in PRL, he "submitted a draft". FInally, concerning the Astronaut Candidate, he "participated in a special program between NASA and Turkish Air Force" (hey, didn't he write that he did not have military background??).

In addition, Jiji, a major news agency in Japan, also reported the problem on web (in Japanese). It is rumored that there will be more coverage in the morning issue of newspapers today (November 10th).

Dr. Anilir's official positions

-- Update:  One of us asked the University of Tokyo about exact nature of Dr. Anilir's employment status: we obtained the confirmation that his "Jokyo" position is permanent one, not on a termed contract. In addition, it seems that official English title for "Jokyo" is "Assistant Professor", according to the policy of School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo.


A few readers from Turkey questioned about precise nature of Dr. Anilir's position.

What we confirmed is as follows:

• In March 2003, he obtained Ph. D. in Engineering from the University of Tokyo.
• After that, in Academic Year 2003, he was a "Space and Astronautical Project Research Staff" at ISAS (research division of JAXA).
• There is no record of Dr. Anilir's exact position for Academic Year 2004. However, it is likely that he continued his "Project Research Staff" position in 2004 as well.
• Since Academic Year 2005, he is an Assistant Professor at Department of Architechture, Faculty of Engineering, the University of Tokyo. No official affiliation with ISAS can be found since then.

In Japan, Academic Year starts in April (for example, Academic Year 2003 is from April 2003 to March 2004).

NOTE: Most of the links in this posting refer to documents in Japanese. Maybe they are not very useful for non-Japanese readers, but they are provided so that anyone can verify in principle.

I do not know what the "Project Research Staff" means at ISAS, but it usually implies an entry-level research position funded by some project money. Namely, it is not a regular (permanent) faculty or staff member of ISAS (JAXA). In fact, he does not appear in the "List of Researchers" in the ISAS annual report. This does not mean he was not at ISAS, but he was not part of the regular faculty/staff. His position was perhaps a good start for a fresh Ph. D., but looks nothing exceptional. In the annual report of ISAS for 2003, his name appears in the "Research Activity" section with the above title (and in the Publications and Presentations section.) In the annual report of ISAS for 2004, his name appears only in the Publications and Presentations section; there is no clear indication of his title. His name still does not appear on the "List of Researchers", it seems that he was not a regular faculty/staff in 2004 and in any academic year until 2007. His name is not found also in the current list of faculties at ISAS.

In any case, there is no evidence that Dr. Anilir was a "Director" of any Department at ISAS.

Dr. Anilir obtained the position "Joshu" at the University of Tokyo in 2005. The literal English translation of "Joshu" is "Assistant", maybe similar to Dozent in German system. However, the actual job was often much more independent than "Assistant", strongly depending on each place. Standard English translation was perhaps "Research Associate", but some people used "Assistant Professor " for "Joshu". "Joshu" was a part of faculty but usually they did not lecture regular class. In Science Departments, their job is often to take care of student experiment session. Since Academic Year 2007, Japanese Universities are regulated by a new law and the title of the job was changed to "Jokyo". Dr. Anilir also was transferred to "Jokyo" position. According to the new law, "Jokyo" is more like an independent faculty and closer to "Assistant Professor". In many places, the reality of the job did not change very much, however, before and after the new law. One indication of the tradition is that his group is still called as "Matsumura-Fujita Lab" (because of Professor Matsumura and Associate Professor Fujita in the group, without referring to Dr. Anilir). In any case, it would be fair to say that Dr. Anilir has been enjoying much of academic(??) freedom before and after 2007, without much pressure to "assist" his Professor.

For the English translation of "Jokyo", "Research Associate" is still popular but "Assistant Professor" is also used (and is closer to the spirit of the new law.) I think each University or Department has some policy on the translation. I do not know the policy of his Department, but probably it is legitimate for him to use the title of Assistant Professor, in English. However, there seems no justification for his frequent use of the title "Associate Professor" (see for example the slide in the photo from his talk in Korea.)

The difference between "Assistant Professor" and "Associate Professor", however, might look a negligible problem after seeing grandiose claims found in former Turkish Wikipedia article.......

Dr. Anilir's Mysterious Publication List for 2003

Dr. Serkan ANILIR obtained Ph. D. in Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 2003. Then he took a research staff position at Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), now part of JAXA. Dr. Anilir's his scientific works were reported in the publication list within the annual report of ISAS for 2003. (original version)

NOTE: after the problem was surfaced, ISAS removed the 4 publications by Dr. Anilir from the annual report on the web, because "there were mistakes". The removal is announced, dated November 5, 2009, on the web page for the annual report 2003 (in Japanese). The removal of the publications was also reported by Nikkei and Asahi newspapers. See this and this entries of this blog. The "corrected" publication list no longer contains the 4 publications, existence of which was questioned by us. In the following, the original publication list before the removal is discussed. In fact, there are other publications in the list, and we wonder if existence of all of them has been confirmed or not.

 The publications attributed to Dr. Anilir are as follows (the numbers given by this blog):

1. S. Anilir: The Role of Space-Based Manufacturing in an Evolving Space Economy: SPACEAN Workshop Publications, Turkish Air Force, Ankara-Turkey, (2003).
2. S.Anilir: Designing in Parallel Universes and 11th Dimension: Physical Review Letter, January 2004 Edition, p.22, (2003).
3. S. Anilir S.: Energy for Housing in the 21st Century- Advanced Technology Paths from Space Solar Power into Terrestrial Architecture: Journal of the Faculty of Architecture, Middle East Technical University (METU): Vol. 23, No. 9-10, (2003).
4. B.TODD, S.Anilir: The NEEMO Project, A Report on how NASA utilizes the ‘Aquarius’ Undersea Habitat as an Analog for Long-Duration Space Flight: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Magazine, (2003).
5. S.Anilir: Terraforming Mars: Popular Science Magazine, December Edition, Ankara, Turkey: p.12-18, (2003).

We found the following.

No. 2: The "Physical Review Letter" paper does not seem to exist, as discussed in another entry.

No. 3: The Journal exists and can be seen on-line. However, his paper cannot be found. In fact, it is a biannual publication and only "No. 1" and "No. 2" are issued. ("No. 9-10" in Dr. Anilir's entry cannot be found.) Moreover, it seems that the Journal was not issued in years 2001-2003. (Volume 20 in 2000, Volume 21 in 2004).

No. 4: NOAA Magazine existed and its archive is available on-line. However, Dr. Anilir's article cannot be found. On the other hand, in a different Proceedings, we found a paper with the same title.

Bill Todd and Marc Reagan, The NEEMO Project: A Report on How NASA Utilizes the “Aquarius” Undersea Habitat as an Analog for Long-Duration Space Flight
Engineering, Construction, and Operations in Challenging Environments: Earth & Space 2004, pp. 751-758, (doi 10.1061/40722(153)103)

The first author "Bill Todd" agrees with the above list. However, the second author of the Proceeding is Marc Reagan, not Serkan Anilir. It looks as if the title is taken from the paper of Todd and Reagan, the name of the second author is replaced by Dr. Anilir's name.

No. 1: The workshop might be the one found in this URL. So far we do not find Dr. Anilir's contribution here. Is there a published Proceedings?

No. 5: We are looking for the information about "Popular Science Magazine" published in Ankara, Turkey.

Does Dr. Anilir's "ATA space elevator project" exist?

One of the most important works of Dr. Serkan Anilir is known as "ATA space elevator project". However, a careful examination reveals many questions, which make even the existence of the project doubtful.

In his Japanese books (for general public), he describes the "ATA space elevator project" was pursued at NASA. However, in Turkey, he claimed that he was the "Head of the Space Physics Department" of JAXA (Japanese counterpart of NASA), where the "ATA space elevator project" was carried out. However, there is no evidence of his claimed position and even of the Space Physics Department.

He gave a talk on the "ATA space elevator project" at ASANSOR 2005 in Istanbul, Turkey. His presentation file can be retrieved from here.

Note added (October 10, 2009): apparently the file is removed from ASANSOR site above. A colleague has a backup copy for your examination. Appeal to ASANSOR people: we would appreciate your co-operation to discover the truth.

The "cover" page (page 1) of the presentation is shown above.

On page 2, it appears that he lists the awards he obtained for the project. However, none of the records can be found from other sources.

On page 3, he shows the "ATA Project Team". Several people on this page are actually well-known persons (although we are not sure they are involved in the project.) However, there is an entry "Prof. Dr. Susumu NARA 2004 Physics Nobel Award Winner, Kyoto University". The physics Nobel laureates for 2004 were Gross, Politzer, and Wilczek (all in the USA). Moreover, no person of the name "Prof. Susumu NARA" is found among physicists at Kyoto, let alone among Japanese Nobel laureates.

On page 16, he presents a "U.S. Patent 6,378,203" which is supposed to be crucial for the "ATA space elevator project." However, the patent number given by him shows a completely different patent by different people. In fact, no U.S. patent related to Dr. Anilir can be found. You can verify that by yourself here: doing a search with "Anilir" as the search term yields no result.

The content of his presentation up to page 18 is introduction. Starting page 19, Dr. Anilir presents some technical analysis of the space elevator project. However, the technical part is very similar to the material on the webpage by Ranko Artukovic of Zadar, Croatia. In fact, many figures look identical. For example, we show page 21 of his presentation (left: upper panel), along with Fig. 2 of Artukovic (left:lower panel). At Internet Web Archive, you can verify that Artukovic's web page existed in 2001, well before Dr. Anilir's talk.

Finally, in his Japanese book "Space Elevator" (p. 32) and also in the web article, he uses a beautiful picture (shown left) to explain the "ATA Space Elevator project." However, it turns out that the same picture had appeared in the proceeding of International Astronautical Congress in 2004, by Dr. Brad Edwards. The picture actually consists of several parts, and these parts were first published in July 2004 issue of Discovery Magazine, in order to illustrate Dr. Edwards' plan for space elevators.

In conclusion, although the "ATA space elevator project" is often advertised as a very important project, the organization responsible for the project is unknown. The Project Team members include an unknown "Physics Nobel Award winner." The project is apparently based on a non-existing U.S. patent. More seriously, the technical analysis and the concept figures are strongly suspected of blatant plagiarism. It is difficult to expect that a real project on space elevator is ever carried out as "ATA space elevator project" led by Dr. Anilir.