While waiting today for the librarian of the Bible Society to bring me some books, I could not resist the temptation to go and have a look at the English translation of Elena Ceaușescu’s doctoral dissertation.
Elena Ceaușescu, the semiliterate wife of the former Romanian dictator Nicolae Caușescu, seems to have managed to fool a lot of people for a long time. And not just ordinary people, but the ones working in the field where, so the word goes, you are not supposed to believe something without carefully weighing the evidence.
Her doctoral dissertation, Stereospecific Polymerization of Isoprene, was published by Pergamon Press (an Oxford-base publisher at that time, now an Elsevir imprint).
Even more amazing (or scandalous) is the fact that the English edition is prefaced by none other than a Nobel prize winner for chemistry: Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin.
I wonder how much of what Hodgking writes in the preface is the result of sancta simplicitas and how much is in fact guilty ignorance that becomes all the more inexcusable in a scholar of repute. The noted British scientist had visited Romania and should have known better. Was the official propaganda so powerful as to make her blind to the realities in a totalitarian state?
Of course, when you are treated like royalty, you have every reason to see only what is convenient and disregard all the other discordant voices.
Anyway, it is almost inconceivable that this intellectual fraud, perpetrated on a scale which makes our current prime minister’s crass plagiarism pale into insignificance, should have dragged in the mud names of Nobel prize winners.
And that’s not all. Elena Ceaușescu became not only Member of the Romanian Academy (that would not have been so hard), but also (fasten your seat belts!) Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry in 1978. Shortly afterwards, in 1980, the Institute merged with other organization and became The Royal Society of Chemistry. In 1989 Elena Ceaușescu was excluded (post mortem?) from the society. But in that fateful December 1989 I guess she had other things for which to worry.
Excluded and disgraced she may have been, but her revenge on the scientific milieu proves to be a long-lived one. Her doctoral dissertation (written by other scientists in her name) is so good that it continues to be sold by Amazon and other online bookshops.
16 octombrie 2012 at 3:56 am
There is one simple explanation: the academia in the west was always fascinated with the left side of the political spectrum… they loved them thay..they love them now…
16 octombrie 2012 at 3:59 am
Correction: “them”
We have two more frauds on this side of the ocean with a Nobel prize: Al Gore a and Obama
16 octombrie 2012 at 6:37 am
politics and money. or vice-versa?
there is a good joke about the above mentioned issue which goes well in romanian: a reporter asked elena ceausescu what is the next subject she has in mind after polimerisation (mere – apples in romanian). with a very intellingent look on her face she firmly answers: poliprunizarea – poliprunisation!
16 octombrie 2012 at 6:43 am
n-ai gasit si celelalte doua carti mentionate? imi place mai ales penultimul paragraf!
pina curind am avut o carte semnata de nicu ceausescu si un obscur inginer despre prelucrarea metalelor prin eroziune, o chestie noua la vremea publicarii. in cele din urma am facut ce a facut hitler ca a fost o iarna friguroasa. domle cum ajung unii sa distruga cultura…
16 octombrie 2012 at 7:19 am
A few years ago, I worked for a short while with a Belgian researcher who had read the famous doctoral dissertation (I think he still had it in his library). He told me that the contents was very good indeed. It was only later that he found out E.C. didn’t write the dissertation herself.
16 octombrie 2012 at 11:51 am
Pergamon Press was owned by fraudster Robert Maxwell, and also published gushing hagiographies about nasty communist dictators, including ‘Nicolae Ceausescu: Builder of Modern Romanian and International Statesman’: http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000201760
21 octombrie 2012 at 9:36 am
Eu unul nu ma mai mir cum de oameni inteligenti si educati au putut crede gogoritele vindute de Ceausesti occidentului… ( savant de renume mondial, academician, doctor, inginer si alte asemenea aiureli). Caci avem si noi aici un “hoax” mult mai grozav pe linga care tarasenia asta cu titlurile lui Lenuta lu’ Ceasca e un mizilic.
Ma refer, bineinteles, la ascensiunea unui “foreign exchange student” cu numele de Barry Soetero in functia de presedinte al SUA. Mai bine de o jumatate de America a fost prostita sa voteze cu un entuziasm de nedescris pe cineva despre al carui trecut nu stiau mai nimic. Nici acum, dupa patru ani de presedintie nu se stie cum, cind si unde Barry Soetero, studentul indonezian care a fost acceptat la Occidental College cu bursa de “foreign student” a (re)devenit Barack Hussein Obama si care, la rindul lui, a fost admis la Columbia si apoi Harvard. Toate documentele privind educatia lui in America sint inca sigilate, speculatiile curg girla … iata aici o mostra de la unul din putinii lui colegi de facultate:
21 octombrie 2012 at 9:48 am
Impresia mea este că a fost votat și dintr-un anumit sentiment de culpă. „Iată finalmente un candidat de culoare. Hai să ne revanșăm pentru tratamentul de care au avut parte în trecut persoanele de culoare în SUA. Votăm cu mic cu mare, fără prea multe întrebări”.
21 octombrie 2012 at 9:54 am
Da, stiu si eu citiva care au tinut neaparat sa “faca istorie” votind un negru… adica o persoana de culoare… oops nici asta nu e bine – trebuie zis “african -american pentru a fi PC
21 octombrie 2012 at 9:51 am
First five minutes can be skipped (it’s more about the Senate majority leader questioning Romney on taxes).
24 octombrie 2012 at 4:51 pm
Reblogged this on Trezire si Restaurare.
24 octombrie 2012 at 4:52 pm
Reblogged this on "Politichie" actuala.