[imcoconut]

I was citing in case anyone reading was unaware of his mathematical chops.

That's a fair point. I'm not one for argument by authority.

My point with his discovery is that he's empirically demonstrated a capability of uncovering understanding and deep mathematical relationships, which have practical implications. The PHD part is less relevant.

In my opinion, this information decreases the probability that rentech has been consistently outperforming on the basis of pure luck. By how much, though, I can't say.