X-Message-Number: 10205
Date: Sat, 08 Aug 1998 13:35:15 -0700
From: Paul Wakfer <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #10193 Degrees

As can be seen from the header information below, this post was sent in
plenty of time to appear in the Aug 8 edition of CryoNet. I hope it does
not appear twice.

Subject: Re: CryoNet #10193 Degrees
Date:    Fri, 07 Aug 1998 21:45:01 -0700
From:    Paul Wakfer <>
To:      

>From: 
>Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 00:45:58 EDT
>Subject: degrees

> For the multitudes who are interested in Dr. Yuri Pichugin's academic
> credentials, and mine:

> In Russia and the Ukraine there is no degree exactly equivalent to the
> American Ph.D.; the system is different and more complicated (and more
> political). But Dr. Pichugin does have the status equivalent to Ph.D.,

Perhaps the propriety of your use of "Dr" in front of Pichugan's name is
a matter of interpretation (as a line quoted from him below suggests),
however, the same quote shows that your last statement above is
incorrect:

In the same message which contained his CV (and which I quoted from in
my previous post), Yuri wrote:

        The academic degrees and the research positions,
        which were in the former USSR, are very difference
        from those in the US and another countries.

and later:

        About academic degrees. There are two academic degrees
        at the Ukraine as well as at the former USSR. The first
        degree is "Candidate of some Science" which is less
        significant than the second degree "Doctor of some Science".
        However Western scientists name and take our two degrees as
        "Dr. Ph." but only formally. Legally, our Cand. or Dr.
        diplomas are not equal Western Dr. Ph.. The problem of a legal
        equivalent of the diplomas did not solute in any way in the
        present. In fact, if the degree of Cand. Sci. is estimated as a
1
        conditional unit taking into account a volume and a significance
        of investigations, our degree of Dr. Sci. could be estimated
        as the 3 units, and Western Dr. Ph. could be estimated by the 2
        units. However dissertations for influential persons often were
        made by their subordinates here. A dissertation was (and is now)
        a large bureaucratic work here, but I very did not like to
engage
        this. I could select a much more simple and easy topic for my
        dissertation, but I go by my interests but not my career.

Finally, several months ago the academics and managers at the research
institute where the Hippocampal Slice Cryopreservation Project will be
conducted, decided that Yuri Pichugin could be employed (if we took him)
at a lower salary than would be necessary for a PhD level employee.

BTW, I found Yuri's description of himself, his work and his motivations
above and in the rest of his message, to be very open, honest and
laudable. If he could only speak English decently, there would be more
chance for him to come.

> More importantly, he is an experienced cryobiologist (and avowed cryonicist

> and immortalist), with 36 professional publications in established journals as
> of 1996.

I am not attempting to denigrate Yuri Pichugin or his work or worth in
any manner. I highly respect all of those things. What I *am* against is
the use of credentials to lend some aura of expertise and authenticity
to any work instead of simply leaving that to its objective merits.

>As for me, I have the B.S. and M.S. in physics and M.A. in math. I taught
>physics and related subjects for many years at Wayne State University and
>Highland Park Community College.

Thank you for clarifying this.

-- Paul --

 Voice/Fax: 909-481-9620 Page: 800-805-2870
The Institute for Neural Cryobiology - http://neurocryo.org
Perfected cryopreservation of Central Nervous System tissue
for neuroscience research and medical repair of brain diseases

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