[jmspring]

Sounds like a fed up academic with a stick up his backside.

Sh*tty data? Comes from the community. If the data and algorithms are so poor, and the author so superior, he should have been able to improve the circumstances.

This whole screed reads like an entitled individual who entered a profession, didn't get the glory, oh and yeah, academia doesn't pay well.

In the realm of bioinformatics, lets ignore the work done on the human genome and the like.

[gwern]

> Sh*tty data? Comes from the community. If the data and algorithms are so poor, and the author so superior, he should have been able to improve the circumstances.

Why? Aren't you assuming a lot about the incentives? What if the ground truth is simply that all the results are false due to a melange of bad practices? Do you think he'll get tenure for that? (That was a rhetorical question to which the answer is 'no'.) Then you know there's at least one very obvious way in which he could not improve the circumstances of poor data & algorithms.

[michaelhoffman]

He's not getting tenure because he doesn't have a PhD. According to LinkedIn, he has a master's degree awarded after four years of study [1], which often indicates someone who did not complete a PhD.

[1] http://www.linkedin.com/pub/frederick-ross/13/81a/47

[droithomme]

According to his 2009 CV he was working a PhD in biology back then and expecting to finish in 2011.

Given that he is not a professor it is not clear why he would be expected to be seeking tenure.

[saraid216]

> In the realm of bioinformatics, lets ignore the work done on the human genome and the like.

He discusses this specifically in the rant. Are you saying he's wrong?

[singingfish]

Depends. Subtle corruption of institutional research processes is unfortunately far too common. It means that there's nice low hanging fruit if you know where to look and have access to funding. But that, especially the latter is a tall ask in almost every field.

[dmak]

Perhaps the algorithms aren't within his grasps. They could very well be paying for an out-of-the-box solution.

[ucee054]

he should have been able to improve the circumstances

Was anyone asking him to? Was anyone paying him to? No? Then it's an uphill battle and also not his responsibility. Leaving is saner.