Well put and I thank you for the points regarding Philip Emeagwali. I have noted your points about the court cases, websites among others. I was not aware of such issues around Philip Emeagwali and never was I aware of any allegations contradicating the claims of Philip Emeagwali. It is a shock to me. However, that does not mean that I am convince that he claims are untrue. I need to see eveidence/s.
Wassa
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2010 10:10:13 -0500
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: [NaijaPolitics] Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] - Fw: Phillip Emeagwali
From: meochonu@gmail.com
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
"To fail his PHD studies does not mean that he is a fraud. Jules Holland was expelled from school and the late Jeremy Beadles was a school drop out. Both menbecame UK's biggest TV personalities of recent times. Has Bill Gates completed his university studies or is he a PHD graduate? Why is he not butchered as a fraud? Bill Gates knows Philp Emeagwali and knows his contribution to the development of IT and has never doubted or denied his claim. Those who now claim that Philip Emeagwali is a fraud must provide evidence so that many Black folks in the UK can stop using his name, his contributions and achievements in the annual celebrations of the Black History month. That was all I requested rather than a Pan African solidarity sentiments."
Fatti:
I have addressed all this. On proof, I won't do your work for you since you have internet access. Use it. The proofs are all over the internet in official websites and databases. The Michigan court records alone will take you at least an hour to read. It is very dense. Read my response to Tony and go from there.
But let me response to the quoted portion above:
You're absolutely right that to fail a PhD is no big deal, although the reason why someone failed it is important, especially since this fellow is being projected as a potential source of inspiration for black folk. There are many genuine reasons why someone might fail their comps twice. I mentioned my African American friend in the same school of engineering who also failed the comps twice. He made some sacrifices and cut down his job hours and passed it the third time. Some might be facing family issues. But in the case of Emeagwali, if you read the court records, you'll see clearly that the guy was lazy and wanted things handed to him because he was black and was in Michigan! Is that a work ethic and attitude to life that we should be celebrating and cultivating as a people? Nonetheless, you're right that having or not having a PhD is immaterial to scientific achievement. You mentioned a few names of those who do not have PhDs but have gone on to invent and develop groundbreaking scientific breakthroughs. I could add several more names to your list. The difference between these folks and our "father of the internet" though is that none of them go around claiming falsely to have a PhD or calling themselves doctor and professor. In fact many of them are proud of the fact that they are not PhDs and wear it as a badge of honor. Several of them like Bill Gates were even college dropouts who willingly left college to do what they love and to pursue their dreams. That, for me, even intensifies the inspirational quality of their accomplishments. Which is why I find it outrageous that instead of proudly embracing his non-PhD status and allowing his modest accomplishment to speak for him, Emeagwali has been claiming to be a doctor and professor. The fact is that the fraud that gets to one more is the one that is "not necessary"--the one that emanates from greed and ego.
As a final word to you, please don't make categorical statements like "IT professionals have not doubted Emeagwali's accomplishments." You're obviously just encountering the fraudulent side of Emeagwali for the first time. That statement is false, but I don't blame you for making it. You need to go online and do the research. AFRICAN IT and computer professionals, mostly in the West, have been debunking Emeagwali's false claims for at least twelve years as far as I know. The records are everywhere, mostly on Nigerian websites. So conclusive and emphatic are these refutations that many of these experts do not bother anymore, preferring to let their internet records enlighten those who are not too lazy to find them. The problem, in my opinion, is not that African computer and engineering experts have not weighed in to disprove Emeagwali's lies; it is that our people are so sentimental about black/African achievement, especially scientific achievement, that even if you put the proofs of Emeagwali's fraud to their face, they'll still prefer to cling sentimentally to the myths because it makes them feel better. That's an inferiority complex, but it is a psychological legacy of oppression and historic injuries inflicted on our people. But it's not an excuse for validating fraud.
--
There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.
---Mohandas Ghandi
On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 1:23 AM, Wassa Fatti <wassafatti@hotmail.com> wrote:
Moses,
I think you are confusing things here with regard to the discourse around the achievements of Philip Emeagwali. I am not talking about Pan Africanism or any other isms on this issue. I simply asked for evidence/s to support the allegation that Philip Emeagwali has not done what he claimed to have done in increasing the computer speed. The reason is that Philip Emeagwali's claim is not a hidden claim over the years. He has been interviewed on international newspapers and well known and respected African in the world. Since the 1980s, no one denied his claim to his achievements in computing/science. If his claim to this achievement was false or a "fraud" as indicated in the current discourse, he would have been destroyed instantly. On those grounds, I asked for evidence that he is or was a "fraud". Let his former university denied his claim. Let IT companies, institutes, or individual IT scientists come out of the woods to tell the world that Philip Emeagwali is or was a fraud. Verbal attacks on him without an iota of evidence that he is a fraud is in itself or in turn a fraud. How can someone such as Philip Emeagwali whose work has been recognised by an American president in the White House be a fraud? Was it not the same recognition President Reagan bestowed on the late Michael Jackson? So evidence please? He might be a big headed to ask for a down payment of $10,000.00 just to utter few words of wisdom in Canada, but that does not mean that he is a fraud. To fail his PHD studies does not mean that he is a fraud. Jules Holland was expelled from school and the late Jeremy Beadles was a school drop out. Both menbecame UK's biggest TV personalities of recent times. Has Bill Gates completed his university studies or is he a PHD graduate? Why is he not butchered as a fraud? Bill Gates knows Philp Emeagwali and knows his contribution to the development of IT and has never doubted or denied his claim. Those who now claim that Philip Emeagwali is a fraud must provide evidence so that many Black folks in the UK can stop using his name, his contributions and achievements in the annual celebrations of the Black History month. That was all I requested rather than a Pan African solidarity sentiments.
Wassa
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 09:19:28 -0500
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: [NaijaPolitics] Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] - Fw: Phillip Emeagwali
From: meochonu@gmail.com
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Fatti:Sorry to disappoint you but I don't subscribe to your kind of panAfricanism, which insists on protecting evil and fraud because the perpetrator is an African or a compatriot. Some of us don't just understand patriotism and pan-Africanism that way. I believe in a self-critical, self-scrutinizing pan-Africanist template. You're calling what is going on "allegations" Are you serious? Can't you do a simple google search and make your own judgment on the man? The man's many false claims have been conclusively debunked. This is not the first time I am encountering this man's dubious persona, unlike you. What more proof do you need when the proof is a click away, documented not by some evil white folks but by our own people who are concerned about how this con artist could damage our image and reinforce some unsavory stereotypes about us. The issue is not about Emeagwali not having a PhD. Not all PhDs are scientific achievers. And many inventors in the scientific fields are not PhD holders. The issue is that he has been lying about it, claiming to be a "doctor" and even a "professor." He is neither. Does that not worry you?Does it not worry you as an African that one of you is going around claiming to be the "father of the internet" when he has not achieved anything that remotely qualifies him for that title?Does it not worry you that he spreads the nonsensical claim of being the greatest African scientist alive when there are thousands of Africans who have accomplished much more than he has in the scientific/computing field and do not even dare make that claim?Does it not worry you that he's going around calling a minor prize he won (by default I might add) over twenty years ago the Nobel Prize of Computing?Does it not worry you that he has hoodwinked many of our people with these lies and is now profiteering from their gullibility as he gets invited to inspire our people as a "black genius who pioneered and invented the internet"?As an African and Nigerian, it worries me. The truth should matter; integrity should matter; facts should matter. Even in our Pan-Africanist commitment. We have genuine black scientific heroes, so there is absolutely no excuse for projecting fakes as the face of black scientific contribution.
On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 8:09 PM, Wassa Fatti <wassafatti@hotmail.com> wrote:
Hello to all,
The discourse on Philip Emeagwali is becoming more tense and some us needa more convincing doses of clarification on whether he is an intellectual fraud. How can that be? Why is he being condemned as a fraud now? This man has been discussed in many corners of the scientific world and no one in the white scientific academia, including the universities he graduted from, has come out to dispute his contributions to information technology to this day. Why are Nigerians disputing his achievements and contributions? The other point is that few years ago I saw a picture of the same Philip Emeagwali at the White Houseon on an international magazine being honoured by the former US President, Bill Cliton, for his contribution to computer science. I have also seen many of his writings and his arguments on how to move Africa forward and not ideas and arguments were not of a fraudulent character, but that of a well cultured and cultivated mind. I would therefore appreciate if those who know him well to show tangible evidence that the man is a fraud. It will be very very difficult for an African like Philip Emeagwali to lie about his achievements scientifically in a country like the US and Europe without challenge. Why was he not challenged in the past? Some of us need to be convinced with evidence that he is a fraud. I have attended many Black History months events in the UK where Philip Emeagwali's photoes are placed on walls in many schools and colleges to show Black contributions to science. For those who are now claimimg that he is fraud need to provide us with strong evidence.
The argument that Philip Emeagwali failed his PHD is not an issue. There are many Africans with PHDs who are still empty headed. Secondly, the best inventors in European history were not even university products. Richard Branson of Virgin company was a school drop out. In his high school report, one of his teachers recorded that "he will either be a millionaire or spend the rest of his life in prison." Today he is financing technology and inovations. The allegation of fraud against Philip Emeagwali is therefore a serious one that will be shocking to many Black diasporan communities and hope an evidence can be provided.
Wassa
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:30:32 +0100
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: [NaijaPolitics] Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] - Fw: Phillip Emeagwali
From: toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com
To: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com
CC: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com; naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com
Tim Berners Lee has only a BSc in physics.His achievements are well known.He is actually a low profile figure who does not claim more than he has achieved.
Emeagwali,on the other hand, has generated a spurious profile by claiming achievements he has not made.
That is the problem here.Tim Berners Lee continues to work to drive innovation in his field.I am yet to see any achievement of Emeagaali's beyond the work that got him the Gordon Bell prize years ago.Berners-Lee is a well known figure in the information technology industry.The same cannot be said for Emeagwali.As I wrote earlier, a more realistic Nigerian contender is Kunle Olukotun, professor of computer science at Stanford and one of the first incubator of the Niagara microprocessor developed by Sun Microsystems.thanksToyinOn 20 September 2010 18:51, menre ayes <Menreayes@hotmail.com> wrote:
Dear Fellow Nigerians,
I am responding to this post right now from a computer on the premises of the university where Tim Berners-Lee got his degree. We are proud of him and his achievements so far. We are proud of him, but recently he threw some challenges at us to go further with innovations. Let's give praise when deserved and blame when due.
His invention concerns the Past, Present and Future of the Web. It's a lot of work. There is a difference in the meaning of the Internet and the Wold Wide Web (WWW). Read more about Tim in his book 'Weaving the Web', or get a copy of it from the link below at Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Weaving-Web-Tim-Berners-Lee/dp/0752820907/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285003963&sr=1-2
The Founders of Google did not complete their PhD programmes. Today, they are billionaires and the world is proud of them. Tim worked on the Web project, while some other people worked on the Internet project.
Like everyone else, Phillip Emeagwali may not be perfect, but his has contributed something remarkable to humans' knowledge. There is something in him for Nigeria to be proud of. The wolrd Wide Web is still in an evolutionary process, what then can we contribute?
Menre
Subject: [NaijaPolitics] Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] - Fw: Phillip Emeagwali
To: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com
CC: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com; naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com
From: toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:07:57 +0100
Dom Francis and Itaetim,Emeagwali is a fraud because he claims achievements he does not have.He claims to have many patents.There is NO record that he has ONE PATENT.You can research that yourself at the site of the US Patent Office.He claims to be a Father of the Internet.His accomplishments do not seem to support that claim.The only accomplishment he can be credited with is the Gordon Bell Prize which as as far as I know,does not constitute being a Father of the Internet in his case.If you want to read about real Fathers of the Internet read about Tim Berners-Lee,who I understand developed Hyper Text Transfer Protocol,which enables computers to communicate with each other in cyberspace.Cut your claims of your accomplishments according to their reality.thankstoyin
On 20 September 2010 17:33, D Francis <dom-francis@hotmail.com> wrote:
Common People
Why must we focus on negativity?
Please tell me what makes Emeagwali a fraud?
Is it because he has not published a book yet?
Is it because he no patent accredited to his name?
Is it because he may or may not have a PhD?
Is it because he charges to make speeches?
Is it because he has his speeches on the internet and people give him praises for the speeches?
Many prominent visionaries we have today have same profile as mention above.
If every one us has the same understanding of where we should be or what we should be doing as Emeagwali does, we the blacks should be a force to be recon with in the world
Please try to encourage and not discourage, only knowledge and intelligence can help black people move forward
Cheers
Dom Francis
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com; NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com; NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.comFrom: OlaKassimMD@aol.com
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:48:46 -0400
Subject: [NIgerianWorldForum] - Fw: Phillip Emeagwali
Dear All:
I have always stayed away from the Emeagwali controversy simply because
I do not enjoy watching Nigerians/Africans pull each other down--
(ala our famous PHD syndrome.)
However there are some instances when we must speak up or else
the work of our true heroes, --the genuine achievers become rubbished
by association when the falsehoods perpetrated by some of us are
finally discovered.
I was also for many years taken in by the Emeagwali Phenomenon and Internet
self promotion. I looked him up on the Internet and I was impressed by all the
citations.
In the summer of 2002, I was approached by the Executive of the Nigerian Community
Association in Toronto to help find a keynote speaker who can helpmotivate our youths
at the Annual Independence Day celebration, I had no other person in mind but Dr Phillip Emeagwali.
However, after finally tracking him down I was shocked when he informed me of the costs for him
to appear in Toronto to speak to our youths:
a) Two return business class tickets for himself and his assistant
b) Round the clock limousine service from the moment he lands at the airport until he departs.
c) $10,000.00 speaking fee.
d) Hotel Accommodation--two rooms
After pleading with him, he promised that he would grant some discount on his speaking fee
because he would be directing his message to Nigerian youths in Canada--but that the other items were not negotiable.
We never did agree on the percentage of the discount on the speaking fee.
For obvious reasons, I did not bother to call him again. I managed to persuade myself, even briefly
that I had chosen the wrong vocation. I should have specialized on being a celebrity:)
It was years later, that I finally discovered that I was one of the millions worldwide who have been
fooled by the Emeagwali Phenomenon.
Bye,
Ola---- Original Message ----
From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Mon, Sep 20, 2010 9:58 am
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: Phillip Emeagwali
Amiel,With all due respect, I am very disappointed in your insistence that we honor Emeagwali's true "achievements" even after confirming for yourself that the man is indeed a fraud of immense proportion, a self-promoting genius who is, in his claimed field of expertise, a mediocre at best. I can understand Ikhide's frustration. The "debate" on Emeagwali's intellectual fraud has long been settled in the Nigerian cyberspace. Only the most fanatical Nigerian and African American sentimental (as opposed to a rational) investors in black scientific heroism, still take the fool seriously. And, of course, our people back home, for whom even the mere fact of foreign residency is a validation, let alone one that is backed by aggressively deceptive self promotion. Okay, let's do what you're asking us to do and strip away the lies, deceptions, exaggerations, false claims, and the entire intellectual pyramid scheme as someone called Emeagwali's internet based edifice of fraud. When we are done with that, we're left with:1. A guy who FAILED his PhD qualifying exam TWICE at my alma mater, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.2. A guy whose doctoral research was subsequently evaluated by internal and external examiners and declared substandard.3. A guy whose research won a minor THIRD PLACE prize in a very narrow field of applied computing. He was bumped to first place only when the teams ahead of him with higher computing speed won another prize and therefore forfeited the category to Emeagwali. In other words, he "won" by default. The prize had nothing to do with the internet or even computing as a field. It was for application of computing to oil exploration.4. A guy who has no single published paper in a peer reviewed publication in his field5. A guy who has no single patent or "patent pending" as he claims6. A guy who has managed through internet trickery to get many media organizations, especially the black press, to buy into and as a result, validate his hoax. He then cites those naive, ignorant press validations, recycling them through links, which then show up on google and are then picked up by naive, hero-hunting black folks all over the world. As a fraud, it is very clever, but it is still a fraud and a huge one at that.7. A guy who has parlayed his falsehoods into all kinds of lucrative speaking engagements in black America, Nigeria, and the Caribbean, deceiving our people who are hungry for heroes and collecting their hard earned money to make them feel good about themselves.8. A guy who routinely goes around calling himself professor and Dr but who has never taught a university class, failed his PhD, and is not an academic.I can go on, but let me not bore you with that your own research has revealed to you already. So, here you have a guy whose only achievement is the Gordon Bell Prize ($1000), which he won by default after coming THIRD and which he fraudulently calls "the Nobel Prize of Computing." I put it to you that there are THOUSANDS of Nigerians whose research have won such narrow prizes in their fields and won not by default or by coming THIRD but by beating the competition. They don't make noise or self-promote. They don't lie about themselves. They don't call themselves "Africa's greatest scientist," "father of the internet," etc. Even on this list, there are many scientists who have won more prestigious prizes and awards. Our own Joseph Igietseme recently led a team of scientists at the prestigious CDC to win a highly coveted award in the field of biomedical research. The man did not grab a megaphone to announce that he was the greatest African scientist alive.Has Nigeria honored the genuine achievers in our midst? How about our own Oga Falola, has he been given a national award let alone being put on a postage stamp? How about Pius Adesanmi and many others who have been making us proud by hauling in prestigious literary prizes from across the world; have they been as much as recognized in Nigeria?If we're desperate for heroes, why don't we honor genuine ones? Why validate liars and frauds like Emeagwali who have actually brought dishonor to the country as their claims have been serially debunked and have been sometimes generalized to Nigerians and "their 419 ways"? Remember that every time their false claims are debunked their nationality and Africanness are referenced. How can that be good for a country that has genuine scientific pioneers working in the most prestigious and cutting edge scientific institutions in the world (CDC, NASA, etc).As we speak, there is another fraud who has similarly cast a spell on home audiences, hauling in cash and recognition. Dr. Gabriel Oyibo self-describes as a five time Nobel Prize nominee even though Nobel nominations are not revealed until at least a hundred years or so, and even though his peers cannot even vouch for the validity of his bizarre claims, which reside at the confusing intersection of religion, metaphysics, African history and mythology, and physics!A trained physicist, the man, who cannot even hold down an academic job and has no impressive research pedigree to speak of, claims that he has invented a theory of everything, which he calls GAGUT! The Nigerian national assembly issued a declaration honoring him as a great African scientist! He, too, is on a Nigerian postal stamp!Oyibo is in some respect even worse than Emeagwali since he actually has a PhD and used to have an adjunct teaching position that gives him a perfect cover to perpetrate his deception. At least Emeagwali is a good motivational public speaker and writer (which I think is his actual calling in life). The GAGUT man speaks in an incomprehensible metaphysical language that is clearly a sign of lunacy.A country that honors frauds and ignores true achievers and truthful, quiet heroes deserves what is happening to her.--
On Sun, Sep 19, 2010 at 5:36 PM, Amiel Fagbulu <amiel.fagbulu@ymail.com> wrote:
--
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Amiel Fagbulu <amiel.fagbulu@ymail.com>
To: Ayoola Tokunbo <toks_ayoola@hotmail.com>
Sent: Sun, September 19, 2010 11:28:47 PM
Subject: Re: Phillip Emeagwali
Ayoola,Thank you for the answers you gave to my questions to Ikhide. To put the whole event in perspective please let me clarify what led to this Emeagwali thing.For some time now, at least two times a week, the local Federal Radio in Osun State (FM 95.5) has been broadcasting the names of some worthy Nigerians as promotional material for the 50th Independence Celebration. Wole Soyinka, Philip Emeagwali and Okonjo-Iweala lead the pack. It came as a shock to me when in a totally unrelated matter Ikhide in passing condemned Nigerians who were falsely misrepresenting themselves to Nigeria and specifically zeroed on Emeagwali. To me it was breaking news in that someone like Emeagwali,if what Ikhide said about him was true, being touted for honor nationally would bring discredit to our counrty. The only thing I knew about him was what I read in an international magazine several years ago. I turned to the internet and ran through the titles of the first two pages of the 28,400 search results from Google. The six or eight I browsed seemed to repeat and confirm the claims of this fellow. Since I access the internet mainly between 10:00 pm and 1:00 am Nigerian time every night, using a generator most of the time, I could not afford the time or the luxury of spending my limited resources digging further into this that night so I asked those questions.It seemed likely to me that those in charge of that promotional material could be in the same darkness that I was in. The intention was to get the facts and alert them since no sane person will like to expose this country to ridicule on such a grand scale on such occassion.The only response I got from Ikhide was a lot of negative things about myself so your response proved very useful. I have since gone further and my findings seem to tally with what you aided me with..BUT I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS TO ASKYour categorization of this man is very helpful. Can we not strip down his falsehoods, remove the false parts of his half truths, and highlight his true achievement so as to see the true Emeagwali? Will there still be something concrete left at the end of it all to make him worth being held up as a worhy Nigerian?That is the way I look at events. If it can be done those who have researched him could try to present a Balanced Naration of Emeagwali's Achievements.On my part I am trying to alert those in charge of this honor thing to check the facts that I can now direct them to on the net if it is not too late.Cheers and thanks.Amiel
From: Ayoola Tokunbo toks_ayoola@hotmail.com.
To: amiel.fagbulu@ymail.com
Sent: Sat, September 18, 2010 7:50:48 PM
Subject: Re: Phillip Emeagwali
Amiel,
The following might answer those questions you were asking Ikhide.
Philip Emeagwali myths
This page briefly addresses some specific claims appearing on Emeagwali's self-promotional website and elsewhere. For a more in-depth discussion of Emeagwali's "outright lies, half-truths, and numerous unsubstantiated claims," see the article Self-Promotion and Self-Authentication: "Father of the Internet" by Chioma Ezeilo.
MYTH #1:
Each year since 1987, the judges for the annual Gordon Bell competition have given out multiple prizes for supercomputing applications, usually including one for performance (fastest speed), and one for price/performance (best speed/cost ratio; specifically, "price-performance ratio as measured in megaflop/s per dollar on a genuine application").
Emeagwali made the "world's fastest computation" in 1989
Despite what you may have read on the Internet, the 1989 prize for the fastest performance was awarded not to Emeagwali, but to another entrant:
In the performance category, we awarded the prize to a team from Mobil Research and Development and Thinking Machines Corp. [...] Their solution of a seismic data-processing problem ran at almost 6 Gflops on a CM-2 Connection Machine.The winning speed of 6 Gflops was almost double that of Emeagwali's entry (3.1 Gflops, a speed that Emeagwali has repeatedly misrepresented as the "world's fastest"). The Mobil/TMC team achieved the best price-performance ratio too, but since no entry was allowed more than one prize, the price/performance award passed to Emeagwali (who also used a CM-2 Connection Machine) even though his score in that category was about 20% worse than the leading score:
"Special Report: 1989 Gordon Bell Prize," IEEE Software, May 1990, p. 101
We awarded the price/performance prize to Philip Emeagwali [...] His model ran at a price/performance of slightly less than 400 Mflops per $1 million. While the Mobil/TMC team achieved almost 500 Mflops per $1 million, we decided to award only one prize per entry.See the yearly results for the performance and price/performance categories. In no year did Emeagwali achieve what he claims he did.
"Special Report: 1989 Gordon Bell Prize," IEEE Software, May 1990, p. 101
MYTH #2:
In spite of efforts by Emeagwali and his admirers to hype up his $1000 Gordon Bell award as the "Nobel Prize" of computing, the rest of the computing world continues to associate that lofty label with the Turing Award, which Emeagwali has never won. The Gordon Bell prize, however, is just one of many other annual computing awards, respectable but not at all comparable to either the Nobel Prize or the Turing Award in prestige or prize money. Nor are the selection criteria analogous: Emeagwali was awarded for his performance in an annual competition, not in recognition of lasting contributions to his field.
Emeagwali won computing's equivalent of the Nobel Prize
MYTH #3:
1. Emeagwali's paternity claims to the Internet are judged and found baseless. Emeagwali has not shown any evidence that he was involved with ARPA or any other research organization or company connected with the genesis of the Internet, nor did he express his ideas in technical journals or any other channel through which he could have influenced the development of the Internet during its formative stages.
Emeagwali is a "Father of the Internet"
2. Is there a father of the Internet? A discussion of the main contenders: JCR Licklider, Bob Taylor, Paul Baran, Donald Davies, and Lawrence Roberts.
MYTH #4:
A few Web sources expand the fallacy that Emeagwali created the fastest computer program, insisting that he was also responsible for the massively parallel supercomputer on which the program ran. However, the 65,000-processor "Connection Machine" that allowed such speedy computations was actually the brainchild of Danny Hillis and was built by Thinking Machines Corporation, the company Hillis co-founded. The fact is extensively documented on the web and is so well established that I won't devote more attention to it.
The "Connection Machine" was invented by Emeagwali
MYTH #5:
The number of Emeagwali's patents or patent applications is sometimes claimed to be as high as 30. However, a search of the USPTO and esp@cenet patent databases (as of September 2003) reveals the true number to be zero. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which has a fully searchable online database for all U.S. patents since 1976 as well as all current applications, simply has nothing on file for Emeagwali.
Emeagwali has lots of patents or patent applications
MYTH #6:
Emeagwali is frequently referred to on his own and other websites as "Dr. Philip Emeagwali" or simply "Dr. Emeagwali." Though he did in fact enroll in a PhD program at the University of Michigan, he did not get the degree after failing his qualification examinations twice and having his thesis rejected by a committee of faculty members. Emeagwali subsequently sued the university, alleging civil rights violations and racial discrimination. His case was dismissed without trial. When Emeagwali appealed to a higher court, a three-judge panel rejected his discrimination claims unanimously.
"Dr." Emeagwali?
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---Mohandas Ghandi
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There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.
---Mohandas Ghandi
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You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
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You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
--
There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.
---Mohandas Ghandi
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
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