[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.