Denied in Turkey

Breaking News --- another report by a major newspaper

Asahi Shimbun, one of the largest newspapers in Japan, published an article entitled "Todai Assistant Professor Claiming an Astronaut Candidate: Reasoning Denied by Turkish Government" on the web and in the November 14th printed issue.

This time, the article explicitly mentions the name "Serkan ANILIR". According to the article, Dr. Anilir had submitted a document issued by Turkish Ministry of Transportation to the University of Tokyo, as an evidence of his claim that he is an astronaut candidate.  (It is not clear from the article when the document was submitted by Dr. Anilir. Maybe during the recent investigation.) However, on November 13th, Asahi Shimbun obtained a written comment from Turkish government that "the document is not issued by Turkish MInistry of Transportation, and the content does not represent the fact".

The article also reports that Dr. Anilir also submitted similar letters which are supposed to be issued by NASA and a Professor in the US who invited him to NASA projects. However, they also denied the authenticity of the letters.

Asahi Shimbun interviewed Dr. Anilir in late October about the suspicion surrounding his astronaut candidate claim. He told the newspaper that he took an astronaut training course, based on an agreement between Turkish Air Force and NASA. He could not speak more details because it is a military matter.

The article also reports the problems with his publication list, which was already published by Nikkei.

Well, misrepresenting career in Japan is one thing (which would be certainly very bad), but fabricating an official document from Turkish government is quite another. Wouldn't it be a criminal offense in Turkey? Maybe Dr. Anilir is feeling so sorry about the problem, that he is cornering himself? An interesting observation is that, apparently he did not submit an "official document" from Turkish Air Force which played part according to his story. (see also this entry.)

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).

Moved to a new domain / Access from Turkey

I learned that, access from Turkey to blogspot.com (and to several other internet services provided by Google) is blocked due to some "problematic" contents hosted in the same domain. (Presumably NOT this blog :-) )

So I have moved this blog to a new domain:  now the URL is http://dranilir.research-integrity.net/ .

The old address (dranilir.blogspot.com) is of course still valid (automatically forwarded to the new address).

If you are from Turkey, have friends in Turkey, or familiar with Turkish internet forums, please spread the new address to people in Turkey. Thanks!

I suppose that access to the new place is not blocked, but please let me know if there is a problem. (Of course, your access is not blocked if you are reading this, but please let me know if you know somebody in Turkey who cannot read this.) I apologize for any inconvenience.

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.......

More from Kenchiku-Zasshi

Continuation from the previous post:

Prof. Taro Igarashi, an Associate Professor at Department of Architecture and Building Science, Tohoku University, and the Editor-in-Chief of Kenchiku-Zasshi (a journal published by Architectural Institute of Japan) started his own twitter.

He tweets

"If I am still on the editorial board, I would like to publish an urgent special article on 'why the Serkan affair has happened?' "

"Concerning publication of the article featuring Serkan in the October issue: should we comment something in December issue? I am contacting relevant people. Will the official announcement from School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, be made before the deadline for the issue? It's a battle against time."

Again, I am quite impressed and appreciate his openness about the problem, and that he is treating it seriously.

(Note: Family names, not given names, are usually used in Japan outside family. However, Dr. Anilir mostly refers himself as "Serkan", so he is known as "Serkan" or "Mr. Serkan" in Japan.)

Under investigation? (remarks added)

Breaking News------

Dr. Shunsuke Kurakata, a well-known scholar on architectural history, said in his tweet (at 2:51AM Oct 27th)

"The person is now under official questioning. School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo will soon make an official announcement. It seems that the person is shocked."

Additional Remarks:

It appears that Dr. Kurakata became aware of the questions surrounding Dr. Anilir, only very recently on Oct 25th. After that, he often tweets about Dr. Anilir. Dr. Kurakata is on the editorial board of Kenchiku-Zasshi (Journal of Architecture and Building Science), a journal mostly in Japanese language, published by Architectural Institute of Japan (Society of Architects and Architectural Scholars).

As an interesting coincidence, we learned that the current issue of Kenchiku-Zasshi includes an article featuring Dr. Anilir as an "Intelligent navigator, who opens up the future". Dr. Kurakata quotes the Editor-in-Chief of the journal saying "This is a human version of Sokal Affair!".

While they might have to reflect seriously on their editorial policy, we appreciate the openness of Dr. Kurakata and his colleagues.

Canceled!

Dr. Serkan Anilir was invited to speak at "TEDx Taipei" in Taiwan, on October 17th. His name was on the program until a few days before the event. As always, he was introduced as an "Astronaut Candidate". However, mysteriously, his trace cannot be found anywhere in the final program.

He was also invited to speak at a Symposium in Sendai, Japan, organized by Miyagi University on November 5th, together with a famous architect Mr. Kitagawara. Again, he was introduced as an "Astronaut Candidate", and he was supposed to speak about "environment of earth, viewed from the space." However, we just learned that apparently his name is now removed from the program - by strikeouts! It seems that there was more mercy in Taiwan.

The reason of the cancellation is not known :-) We can just tell you that, apparently quite a few people alerted the organizers of something.......