New US News Chemistry Rankings

[YaBoyAR]

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/chemistry-rankings

So, US News has finally updated the chemistry rankings (first time in a few years!)

Thoughts relevant to me: MIT, Berkeley and Caltech are all still #1.

MIT is still solely in possession of number 1 for inorganic. So all those rumors of them dropping off haven't been noticed by whatever methodology US News uses.

Wisconsin dropped from 7th to 9th.

My undergrad institution jumped from 26 to 24! Woohoo! Go Jackets!

Edit: Before some douche jumps in and remarks about the inaccuracies of the rankings/methodologies/arcane standards/reputations - I know. You're so wise. Thanks.

Edited March 14, 2014 by YaBoyAR

[alkylholic]

Good news for me; I'm probably heading to MIT. I don't remember last year's rank for organic, but I think it went up. 

[YaBoyAR]

Good news for me; I'm probably heading to MIT. I don't remember last year's rank for organic, but I think it went up.

Nice. See you at visitation in 2 weeks? Who are you hoping to work for?

[alkylholic]

Nice. See you at visitation in 2 weeks? Who are you hoping to work for?

I actually visited last week - I had Yale visitations on the 6th and 7th, so I decided to squeeze MIT in. 

 

I'm interested in Mo Movassaghi to do total synthesis. How bout you? 

Edited March 14, 2014 by alkylholic

[YaBoyAR]

I actually visited last week - I had Yale visitations on the 6th and 7th, so I decided to squeeze MIT in. 

 

I'm interested in Mo Movassaghi to do total synthesis. How bout you?

Nice. What'd you think about the program? Anything you liked/disliked? I'm interested in a few. Buchwald is my main target though, pre-visitation.

[Eigen]

So you went with preemptive douchery, so people weren't douches?

[alkylholic]

Nice. What'd you think about the program? Anything you liked/disliked? I'm interested in a few. Buchwald is my main target though, pre-visitation.

The program seems good - they have the standard 1 year of TA duties and classes, oral exams, ect. I'm curious if I can transfer my 6 grad classes from undergrad to bypass the class requirement, but I wouldn't mind taking them again...The only thing that seemed annoying were the cumulative exams at MIT, but the grad students told me not to worry about it. Also, while I personally don't like the idea of lab rotations, they don't make it mandatory, which I am very grateful for. I spoke to Movassaghi and he said I could start early (summer for certain, possibly next month, I still need to work out housing details), though I wouldn't be an "official" member until the same date as the other 1st year students. 

 

Compared to other schools I applied to (like the Ivy leagues, though I still think they are great schools for our field), I thought MIT's student body was higher caliber (intelligence, focus, ect.) and more diverse. The campus is also really beautiful. 

 

Buchwald sounds like a great choice!  

Edited March 14, 2014 by alkylholic

[YaBoyAR]

So you went with preemptive douchery, so people weren't douches?

I see my attempts were feeble.

[Eigen]

Yup, kinda hard to avoid douchery in a thread when it's on the OP.

 

Oh, and also, great job up voting yourself!

[YaBoyAR]

Yup, kinda hard to avoid douchery in a thread when it's on the OP.

Oh, and also, great job up voting yourself!

I think you have recently become my new favorite person. I'm not even joking. Your admiration and incessant stalking has finally worked. I love you too, babe. Edited March 15, 2014 by YaBoyAR

[DropTheBase]

[YaBoyAR]

Lmao. Nice!

[synorg]

 

I'm curious if I can transfer my 6 grad classes from undergrad to bypass the class requirement,

 

[Quantum Buckyball]

y y'all trippin? 

[prolixity]

I actually visited last week - I had Yale visitations on the 6th and 7th, so I decided to squeeze MIT in. 

 

I'm interested in Mo Movassaghi to do total synthesis. How bout you? 

There's a fantastic email floating around from a disillusioned postdoc in the Movassaghi lab.  The guy sent this email to the entire MIT chem department and to total synthesis luminaries all over the world... blaming all of his problems in his failed postdoc on a graduate student he mentored, when it was the postdoc's own issues that led to his downfall.  The postdoc guy is seriously insane and I thought you'd all like to read about it.

 

For what it's worth:  I think that Movassaghi is an excellent mentor and researcher, though I am not working for him.

 

Posted here with names redacted:

 

Dear MIT Faculty, Postdocs, Graduate Students,

It is my academic duty to respectfully report a severe case of academic

misconduct, academic fraud, and plagiarism that is being totally endorsed

and practiced at MIT; in order to protect my fellow researchers from

similar situations.

On top of all things, I am officially reporting academic theft of my

research results and official research academic harassment at MIT.

After I finished my project that was "supposedly" funded by DuPont,

Mohammad Movassaghi was harassing me to submit my success and manuscript to

his utterly failing graduate student, XXXXgradstudent in order to salvage

his appointment at MIT (for an unknown personal reason). When I refused,

Mohammad Movassaghi threatened me with my letter of recommendation if I do

not "cooperate" with his failing student [cooperate here means to accept to

be screwed over]. I believe previous committee members  of XXXXgradstudent

would know what I am talking about.

I finished my project single handedly, perfected every step and

intermediate to a multigram or multidecagram scale, fully characterized all

intermediates with 1H NMR, 13C NMR, IR, COSY, HSQC, HMBC, TLC, and HRMS. I

synthesized 80 mg of the final compound after I fully investigated at least

five different chemical synthetic routes to furnish it. My notebooks are

superbly organized, color coded, and full of every little detail about each

single step and reaction, dates, times, amounts, equivalents.....everything.

I recently discovered that Mohammad Movassaghi wrote on my appointment

forms that I was funded by an "Eli Lilly Award" while I attest that I never

won any awards from Eli Lilly and did not even know that it exists on my

forms instead of DuPont. Mohammad Movassaghi scammed DuPont and DuPont

legal counsels had no idea before I officially conveyed this information to

them.

Furthermore, Mohammad Movassaghi warned me against looking for an

apartment for my family and he told me: "just find an efficiency room and

if you look for an apartment then this is your choice and you should bear

the consequences". He even wrote me a fake letter warning me of piles and

piles of lies that he invented while I was moving my family to Boston (to

black mail me with this letter to submit my success to his failing student

XXXXXgradstudent). A similar situation happened with XXXXXXX, a

postdoctoral researcher. Guess what, Mohammad Movassaghi fired both of them

when I indicated that I will head straight to the office of The President

at MIT.

Recently, Mohammad Movassaghi and his graduate student XXXXXXXothergradstudent reported

some of my exact data in their publication without any reference to my

name, this is academic theft and plagiarism. I have all the original FID

files that XXXXXXothergradstudent  stole from my data and there will be severe legal

consequences. I presented my progress in front of DuPont at The DuPont-MIT

Alliance before.

The level of ethics at MIT: when I reported these academic crimes to Human

Resources at MIT, XXXXXX   threatened me with my academic career if I

pursue Mohammad Movassaghi legally. When I reported these academic crimes

to Professor XXXXXXXX, The Head of XXXXXXX at MIT, she

threatened me with my academic career if I take legal paths, and threatened

me to cancel my publication with DuPont-I am not sure she had full idea

about the scam that DuPont experienced anyways.

Somebody please advise Movassaghi not to talk disrespectfully about

Professor XXXXX, Professor XXXXXX, and Professor XXXXX and ProfessorXXXXXX at Scripps. Poor me I just had to nod

silently in order to get back to my work otherwise get ready to face HELL

if you do not sympathize with his anger. For example, he used to tell me

that Professor XXXX is only good at recruiting students by turning on

marshall military music while he explains to them the new synthetic mission

impossible, the most polite example I can mention in an email-but that was

before XXXXgradstudentXXXX incident anyways.

I also have emails from Mohammad Movassaghi harassing me to come do work

in his laboratory after the expiry of my visa and while I was on a temprary

leave of absence. THIS IS IN VIOLATION OF THE USA HOMELAND SECURITY RULES

as he is forcing me to violate my status and against the warnings I

received from MIT officers and that he knows it. Somebody will be in deep

trouble if not in jail.

XXXXXXXX from HR at MIT foolishly said that I cannot prove anything

since (she imagined) "that they erased my MIT email account and that MIT is

not obligated to reproduce the emails to me". I replied to her that she can

stop hallucinating because I backed up my whole account in three different

servers as well as with two lawyers.

This information has been officially conveyed to Professor XXXXX,

The President at MIT, to Professor XXXXX, The Vice Provost of

Research at MIT, The Office of The Dean of The School of Science, The

Provost of Research, The Ombuds Office at MIT as well as scientific staff

and legal counsels at DuPont. I also filed an official grievance of

academic misconduct against Mohammad Movassaghi and requested an official

investigation and full copies of my notebooks.

Please see attached document for details. Again, all my fellow researchers

beware. I believe if a female student is raped in the Movassaghi group, she

will also be threatened with her academic future by XXXXX and XXXXX

 if she opens her mouth, and XXXX will tell her some nonsense.

Respectfully,

XXXXXX

Edited March 16, 2014 by prolixity

[alkylholic]

Wow, that's nuts! The closing remarks about rape was a great way to close this crazy email.

 

I spoke to Movassaghi's current and former students (grads, postdocs and undergrads) and they had nothing but positive things to say about him.

Edited March 16, 2014 by alkylholic

[Quantum Buckyball]

 

 

I have talked to many professors who have done postdoc at MIT and they all pretty much hated the experience. They said people at MIT do not collaborate, and often tried to take down others, it was a very stressful and toxic environment to be in.

 

To be honest, I wasn't surprised to see Movassaghi tried to blackmail the postdoc with letter of recommendation bullshit. A lot of time the school won't do anything mainly because they care more about the school's reputation than academic integrity. I would recommend that postdoc to take this to a local news channel, or upload it on YouTube,

Edited March 16, 2014 by Quantum Buckyball