X-Message-Number: 23611 From: "Kitty Antonik Wakfer" <> Subject: Correction Warranted in #23607 Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2004 14:06:44 -0700 > Message #23607 > Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2004 01:39:57 -0500 (EST) > From: Charles Platt <> > Subject: What happened in the Stump debate > <snip> > > During one of the debates a representative questioned the > credentials of a scientist who flew in to testify at the > Health Committee hearing. The representative suggested that > some people may have been "razzle-dazzled by an English > accent" and may not know the difference between a research > associate and a professor. In fact the visiting scientist, > Aubrey de Grey, does have a Ph.D. according to a bio that I > found at The Extropy Institute online. Some correction of what is considered by the writer of the above post to be one of "small factual errors" is warranted. Both alternative descriptions of Aubrey de Grey in the post above - research associate and professor - are incorrect. While Aubrey de Grey does have a Ph.D., it is in the computer field, as Aubrey himself acknowledges in his own bio linked from Extropy Institute http://www.gen.cam.ac.uk/sens/AdGbio.htm (This common education "origins" in the engineering sciences as opposed to the biological - and the unique perspective it afforded both of them - was among their discussions when Paul first met Aubrey and introduced him to Saul Kent and others at 21CM in 1997. This was done after Aubrey had contacted Paul, having had interchange on sci.life-extension, to aid him in making this contact.) However, the "work" that Aubrey describes in his bio and for which he is well known on sci.life-extension and in the biogerontological scientific community is not what Cambridge University employs him to perform. He is also not on the faculty at Cambridge and therefore not a professor. (Not even an adjunct professor - part-time, the lowest level of professorship. As an aside, I will state for those who do not know it, that Paul was an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto for 6 years and therefore can rightfully use the title Professor, though he never does.) Aubrey de Grey is listed as "Aubrey de Grey (computer associate)" at http://www.gen.cam.ac.uk/newdept/research/labs/flybase.htm "FlyBase is a database of the genetics and genomics of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, and related species. The project is a collaboration between sites at Harvard (Principal Investigator William Gelbart), Indiana (PIs Thomas Kaufman and Kathleen Matthews) and Berkeley (PI Gerry Rubin) Universities in the USA and the Cambridge FlyBase group (PI Michael Ashburner) in the Department of Genetics at Cambridge. The project integrates information from the research literature with information from the various genome projects, and provides an online data service that provides the information to the public via a variety of searching and browsing tools." This position as computer associate in the Flybase Group of the Department of Genetics at Cambridge University affords Aubrey the time (and facilities) to devote to his real interest, "to expedite the development of a true cure for human aging" (per his personal bio above). Aubrey has provided a considerable amount of value in his private biogerontological literature research and conference involvement, but he is not a "research associate" at Cambridge University as the representative, referred to in the post above, is claimed to have stated. http://www.longevitymeme.org/articles/viewarticle.cfm?article_id=14&page=1 misleadingly refers to Aubrey as "University of Cambridge gerontologist Aubrey de Grey". However he is not a gerontologist for Cambridge University, but rather on his own time; he is an independent researcher who has a computer associate position in the Department of Genetics at Cambridge. This does not degrade the quality and value of his work any more than if he did the work while supporting himself by virtue of an inheritance or wealthy patron. http://cryonet.org/cgi-bin/dsp.cgi?msg=23445 is incorrect, as shown above, in the listing description of Aubrey de Grey as part of Natasha Vita-More's announcement of VP Summit 2004. "Summit Keynoters " Ronald Bailey, Science Correspondent, Reason Magazine " Aubrey de Grey, Ph.D., Professor, University of Cambridge, Department of Genetics <snip>" http://www.methuselahfoundation.org/about.asp#Administrators lists Aubrey but also incorrectly: "Aubrey de Grey, the main architect of the Methuselah Mouse Prize structure, is a biologist and computer scientist at the Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, UK..." He is neither a biologist nor a computer scientist *for* the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge as shown above. While he has a Ph.D. in computer science, technically he is not a computer "scientist" because he does not do scientific research about computer software or hardware. (He is strictly a computer user.) Once again, "[h]is major research interests" on which he does literature research and publishes are activities outside, in addition to and separate from the ones for which the University of Cambridge employs him. Although Paul and I have been aware for some time of the hyping being done in a number of life-extension circles about Aubrey de Grey's "credentials", neither of us thought it worth the time to point out the actual facts until now that this post has made such credentials a major issue while purporting to set the facts "straight". We acknowledge and laud Aubrey for his contributions to anti-aging science, but do not think that his actual Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge computer associate position should be misconstrued for the purpose of exaggerating the value of his viewpoints, the "authority" or his statements or even the scientific facts he may present. **Kitty Antonik Wakfer MoreLife for the rational - http://morelife.org Reality based tools for more life in quantity and quality Self-Sovereign Individual Project - http://selfsip.org Rational freedom by self-sovereignty & social contracting Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=23611