USA Africa Dialogue Series - DIALOGUE WITH MADISON GRAY,TIME MAGAZINE WRITER,ON HIS FALSE CLAIMS ON THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF PLILIP EMEAGWALI IN TIME MAGAZINE

1.

from toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> to letters@time.com, Madison_Gray@timemagazine.com date 20 October 2010 13:29 subject ENQUIRY ABOUT ASSERTIONS ON PHILIP EMEAGWALI ON TIME'S "BLACK HISTORY MONTH: UNSUNG HEROES" mailed-by googlemail.com

hide details 20 Oct

Dear TIME editors and writer,

Good afternoon.

I am writing this letter to request from you the sources of your information on the following assertions about the Nigerian-American  scientist Philip Emeagwali in the article "Philip Emeagwali, A Calculating Move"by Madison Gray published Friday, Jan. 12, 2007.

Even though your efforts to present the achievements of Black scientists is appreciated,there has emerged significant concern over the fact that most of the claims made by and about Philip Emeagwali are unsubstantiated by independent scientific  or industry sources.

The prestige of your publication is weighty in terms of the endorsements it provides  to any claims made  by your writers.This makes this enquiry of particular significance.

These are the assertions in that article  it would be helpful  if you could provide your sources for:

1. the Web owes much of its existence to Philip Emeagwali, a math whiz who came up with the formula for allowing a large number of computers to communicate at once.

2.In 1987, he applied for and was given permission to use the machine, and remotely from his Ann Arbor, Michigan, location he set the parameters and ran his program. 

3.The crux of the discovery was that Emeagwali had programmed each of the microprocessors to talk to six neighboring microprocessors at the same time.

4.The success of this record-breaking experiment meant that there was now a practical and inexpensive way to use machines like this to speak to each other all over the world. Within a few years, the oil industry had seized upon this idea, then called the Hyperball International Network creating a virtual world wide web of ultrafast digital communication.

5.he was later hailed as one of the fathers of the Internet.

6.Since then, he has won more than 100 prizes for his work

7. Apple computer has used his microprocessor technology in their Power Mac G4 model.

Thank you

Toyin Adepoju

2.

from Madison Gray <Madison_Gray@timemagazine.com> to toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> date 4 November 2010 13:04 subject Re: ENQUIRY ABOUT ASSERTIONS ON PHILIP EMEAGWALI ON TIME'S "BLACK HISTORY MONTH: UNSUNG HEROES"

hide details 4 Nov

Mr. (or Ms.) Adepoju,

I have once again received your inquiry about Philip Emeagwali and have reached out to reliable sources to verify what was written in that article.

When I receive a response, then a decision will be made as to whether any of the content of the story needs to be corrected.

Much thanks,

Madison Gray
Homepage Producer
TIME.com
212-522-6127
Madison_Gray@timemagazine.com

3.

from toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> to Madison Gray <Madison_Gray@timemagazine.com> date 4 November 2010 14:10 subject Re: ENQUIRY ABOUT ASSERTIONS ON PHILIP EMEAGWALI ON TIME'S "BLACK HISTORY MONTH: UNSUNG HEROES" mailed-by googlemail.com

Dear Madison Gray,

Thank you very much.

This is much appreciated.

Toyin Adepoju .

  .

4.

from toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> to Madison Gray <Madison_Gray@timemagazine.com> date 11 November 2010 10:07 subject Re: ENQUIRY ABOUT ASSERTIONS ON PHILIP EMEAGWALI ON TIME'S "BLACK HISTORY MONTH: UNSUNG HEROES" mailed-by googlemail.com

hide details 11 Nov

Good morning,Madison Gray,

Thanks for this response.

I hope I can still expect your decision on this and the information on which your decision is based.

Thanks

Toyin

5.

from toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> to Madison Gray <Madison_Gray@timemagazine.com> date 2 December 2010 19:48 subject Re: ENQUIRY ABOUT ASSERTIONS ON PHILIP EMEAGWALI ON TIME'S "BLACK HISTORY MONTH: UNSUNG HEROES" mailed-by googlemail.com Images from this sender are always displayed. Don't display from now on.

hide details 2 Dec (1 day ago)

Dear Madison Gray,

I wonder why I have not got a response from you yet.

Meanwhile,you might like to see this:

Below are the responses from two of the judges of the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize of which Emeagwali was one of the winners.I have also attached the official report of the prize that will clarify the actual scope of his achievement in relation to that prize.

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from Karp, Alan H > to toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> date 21 October 2010 00:12 subject RE: ENQUIRY ON PHILIP EMEAGWALI,WINNER OF THE 1989 GORDON BELL PRIZE mailed-by hp.com

Thanks for explaining the purpose of your questions.  My answers are inline below.

 

________________________

Alan Karp

Principal Scientist

Virus Safe Computing Initiative

Hewlett-Packard Laboratories

1501 Page Mill Road

Palo Alto, CA 94304

(650) 857-3967, fax (650) 857-7029

http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Alan_Karp

 

From: toyin adepoju [mailto:toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 7:35 AM
To: Karp, Alan
Subject: ENQUIRY ON PHILIP EMEAGWALI,WINNER OF THE 1989 GORDON BELL PRIZE

 

Dear Alan Karp,

 

Good afternoon.

 

I hope this meets you well.

 

This email is an enquiry relating to Philip Emeagwali, one of the Winners of the Gordon  Bell Prize of 1989 of which you were one of the  judges.

 

There has been significant confusion in various publications as to the scope of the achievements of Philip Emeagwali,particularly in terms of the character of his achievement that won him the Gordon Bell Prize, leading various people and bodies to seek clarification.As far as I know,your views as a scientist and a judge of that prize are yet to be sought on this subject

 

It would be most helpful if you could  clarify the following issues dealing with the facts  of this matter:

 

 

1.The copy of a report on the prize described as written by you and the other judges( found on the Wikipedia article onEmeawagwali and attached to this mail) described Emeagwali as using the Connection Machine or CM-2 in the work that won him the prize.It is claimed in other publications that he programmed this computer remotely.Do you know if this is correct?

 

Not specifically, but remote use of supercomputers, while harder than it would be today, was not all that rare at that time.

 

2.Are you aware if  he played any role in the development of the CM-2 or of supercomputing generally?

 

No.

 

3.Are you aware of any effect his work with the CM-2 has  made to the development of the Internet?

 

No.

 

4.Are you aware of any contributions made by Emeagwali's work to the  oil and information technology industries?

 

No, although it wouldn't surprise me if the algorithm he used in his Gordon Bell Prize work was adopted by the industry.

 

 

It would also be helpful if you could express an opinion on the following question which is less one of  fact but of  judgement on the subject:

 

It is puzzling that in spite of Emeagwali's achievement in winning the Gordon Bell Prize,there is hardly any  reference to his work  in scientific  or industry literature.Could you suggest any opinion as to why that is the case?

 

The Gordon Bell Prize rewards superior performance or price/performance.  Being cited by others in some area is a reflection of the importance to the field.  These two metrics are orthogonal, so it's not surprising when a problem submitted for the Gordon Bell Prize is not considered important by application experts. 

 

Emeagwali's Gordon Bell Prize submission was quite impressive, especially in comparison to other submissions presenting work of teams of computer scientists and application specialists.  It would not have surprised me to see him continue his career in reservoir modeling, numerical methods, or computer architecture.  To the best of my knowledge, he never published work in any of these areas.  It's hard to be cited without refereed publications.

 

 

Thank you very much

 

Toyin Adepoju,

PhD candidate,Comparative Literature Programme,University College,London.

 

2.

1. from Jack Dongarra <dongarra@eecs.utk.edu> to toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> date 4 November 2010 11:13 subject Re: ENQUIRY ON PHILIP EMEAGWALI,WINNER OF THE 1989 GORDON BELL PRIZE mailed-by eecs.utk.edu

This was over 22 years ago and I really don't remember. I would disagree with much of what you have written.

He had nothing to do with the development of the CM-2.

He had nothing to do with the development of the internet.

I know of no contribution that Emeagali has made in computational science.

His work on the Bell Prize has had no impact.

Hope this is clear.

Jack Dongarra

**********************************************************

Prof. Jack Dongarra; Innovative Computing Laboratory; EECS Department;

1122 Volunteer Blvd; University of Tennessee; Knoxville TN 37996-3450;

+1-865-974-8295; dongarra@eecs.utk.edu; http://www.cs.utk.edu/~dongarra/

Thanks

Toyin Adepoju

You might also want to see the reports on this subject in the Nigerian centred online  publications Sahara Reporters and NEXT.

1.

How Philip Emeagwali Lied His Way To Fame

2.The Lies of Philip Emeagwali

3.Government to Investigate Emeagwali

Thanks

Toyin

.6.

from Madison Gray <Madison_Gray@timemagazine.com> to toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> date 2 December 2010 20:28 subject Re: ENQUIRY ABOUT ASSERTIONS ON PHILIP EMEAGWALI ON TIME'S "BLACK HISTORY MONTH: UNSUNG HEROES"

Mr. Adepoju,

I did receive response from the people responsible for handing out the Gordon Bell Prize.
In their correspondence I was told that my original story was correct.
In discussing  the issue with my editor, it was determined that there is no need to run a correction or
clarification.

If you can find evidence that what I've written is actually errant or false, I'm happy to bring it up to my
editors again.

Much thanks,

Madison Gray
TIME.com

.7.

from toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> to Madison Gray <Madison_Gray@timemagazine.com> date 2 December 2010 21:08 subject Re: ENQUIRY ABOUT ASSERTIONS ON PHILIP EMEAGWALI ON TIME'S "BLACK HISTORY MONTH: UNSUNG HEROES" mailed-by googlemail.com

Dear Madison Gray,

Thanks for your response.

I have also been in correspondence with two of the judges  who gave Emeagwali the Gordon Bell Prize and they state,in effect,that most of what you wrote in your article is incorrect. You can see their responses in the mail I sent to you.Of the judges of the prize,one has died.I was not able to reach one of  the surviving ones.I reached the other two, whose response you can see in the mail I sent to you.It would be valuable to see the responses from the Gordon Bell Prize officials you communicated with.

There is no corroboration,anywhere,from any scientific source,that the following claims you make in your article are correct.In addition,the very judges who gave Emeagwali the Gordon Bell Prize in 1989 and have remained active scientists   in computer science,in both industry  and academia,state,in effect, and  categorically,  that all these claims in your article are false:

1.The Web owes much of its existence to Philip Emeagwali

2. A math whiz who came up with the formula for allowing a large number of computers to communicate at once.

2.The success of this record-breaking experiment meant that there was now a practical and inexpensive way to use machines like this to speak to each other all over the world. Within a few years, the oil industry had seized upon this idea, then called the Hyperball International Network creating a virtual world wide web of ultrafast digital communication.

3.He was later hailed as one of the fathers of the Internet. 

4.Since then, he has won more than 100 prizes for his work 

5.Apple computer has used his microprocessor technology in their Power Mac G4 model. 

There is no evidence,anywhere,that any of these claims is correct.Emeagwali,himself,under the glare of intense scrutiny of his claims to achievement,has not been able to provide any proof of these claims.

The only claim that might be correct in your article is the following:

In 1987, he applied for and was given permission to use the machine, and remotely from his Ann Arbor, Michigan, location he set the parameters and ran his program. In addition to correctly computing the amount of oil in the simulated reservoir, the machine was able to perform 3.1 billion calculations per second.

The crux of the discovery was that Emeagwali had programmed each of the microprocessors to talk to six neighboring microprocessors at the same time.

Do you still stand by your assertion that all  your claims about Emeagwali's achievements are correct?

I hope you are sensitive to the implications of this issue.This  is a public investigation with communication on it made available to the public.

I am asking all bodies who have claims about Emeagwali's achievements on their websites to either provide conclusive proof of them or issue  disclaimers that those claims are not factual,placing those disclaimers  where they  can be read in the same space by those who read the articles.I argue that those who have posted false information about Emeagwali's  achievements  on their sites are abetting his scam from which he has been earning  a living.

If you are still convinced of the validity of the claims you  make on behalf of Emeagwali,I would be grateful  to have the contact information of the Gordon Bell Prize officials who assured you of the validity of these claims  so I can follow the case up with them. I would also be pleased to see the mails they might have sent you with this information.It would be refreshingly  revelatory if evidence comes to light on this subject which no one,even Emeagwali,has been able to provide so far.

I hope to read from you soon.

Thank you very much.

Toyin Adepoju

.8. 

from Madison Gray <Madison_Gray@timemagazine.com> to toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> date 2 December 2010 21:46 subject Re: ENQUIRY ABOUT ASSERTIONS ON PHILIP EMEAGWALI ON TIME'S "BLACK HISTORY MONTH: UNSUNG HEROES"

hide details 21:46 (22 hours ago)

Mr. Adepoju,

Again, my correspondence with the Association for Computing Machinery, which is currently responsible for the Gordon Bell Prize, indicated that Mr. Emeagwali was indeed a winner of the prize for the use of the CM-2 machine.
My reporting at the time was based on research I had done on the topic, which I stand by, in addition to an interview with Mr. Emeagwali himself.

As I've written you before, after discussing it with my editor, we see no need to run a correction or clarification on this. The two scientists you refer to below either downplay Emeagwali's winning of the
prize or do not remember much about the event, but they don't dispute what's been written, nor do they mention my article directly. They just say they are not aware of what's been reported about him.

So again, apologies, but based on my research, the story stands and I don't see any reason to continue a back-and-forth on this. Now if there are any scientific legislative bodies, particularly the ACM or IEEE, who discount what has been written about Mr. Emeagwali prior to the 2007 publication of my article, then please forward that information to me.

If you need to find the people I spoke to regarding this, contact Diane Crawford with ACM at crawfordd@hq.acm.org. I'm sure she'll be able to help you. You might also try contacting Mr. Emeagwali directly, to ask him about the things that have been written about him.

So thank you again for your correspondence on this matter, if you do happen to find literature or research that disputes Mr. Emeagwali's achievements then please send that to me.

Madison Gray
TIME.com

9.

from toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> to Madison Gray <Madison_Gray@timemagazine.com> date 2 December 2010 23:00 subject Re: ENQUIRY ABOUT ASSERTIONS ON PHILIP EMEAGWALI ON TIME'S "BLACK HISTORY MONTH: UNSUNG HEROES" mailed-by googlemail.com

Madison Gray,

Nobody disputes Emeagwali's winning the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize.I did not include that in my last mail as the one incontrovertible fact in your article.I did allude to it,however,in stating  that I have been in contact with the scientists who awarded him the prize. The scientists state categorically that the claims for Emeagwali's achievements outside winning the prize,are false.They dont need to mention your article.The fact that your claims in that article are identical to the false claims the scientists refute is significant evidence in refuting your claims.The fact that there is no evidence in support of your claims completes that refutation.

As you will acknowledge ,the Gordon Bell Prize is different from the 100 prizes you claim Emeagwali  won,of which you gave no names.It is different from your  claim of Apple using  his microprocessor technology in their Power Mac G4 model.   It is different from your  claim that his work was central to the development of the Internet.It is different from your claim that he came up with the formula for allowing a large number of computers to communicate at once.It is different from your claim that his work influenced the oil industry.

All these are very specific claims made by yourself that cannot be correlated with   latitude or lack of same in assessing the scope of fundamental,epochal achievements which have transformed  science and industry, which you ascribe to Emeagwali.

I suggest   you  consider carefully your decision to stand by the claims you are making in your article.Those claims cannot be laid at the door of the Gordon Bell prize officials.

One would expect that a writer for a reputable international news magazine like TIME should be able to provide the names of the 100 prizes you describe Emeagwali as winning.One would expect you to be able to provide incontrovertible  information on a claim you make of such importance as Apple computer using his microprocessor technology in their Power Mac G4 model.   One would expect you have done your research that shows Emeagwali has been hailed as a father of the Internet and that the Internet owes much of its existence to him,as you claim. Claims of that magnitude,in the open world of modern science,should not be difficult to corroborate in a definitive manner.

Are you claiming that all these claims you make about Emeagwali are based on an interview with him? With all the access to information available to you,you accepted grand claims  for which there is no evidence?

If you stand by those claims I await your corroborating evidence on them.

Thanks

Toyin Adepoju

.

10.

from Madison Gray <Madison_Gray@timemagazine.com> to toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> date 3 December 2010 13:57 subject Re: ENQUIRY ABOUT ASSERTIONS ON PHILIP EMEAGWALI ON TIME'S "BLACK HISTORY MONTH: UNSUNG HEROES"

Mr. Adepoju,

Considering your tone I no longer see any reason to continue any correspondence with you. I will once again discuss what you've submitted to me to my editors.

If they see fit to append a correction or a clarification then it will happen. But I see no need to engage in a debate over Mr. Emeagwali with you.

Madison Gray
TIME.com.

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