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

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