Subject:  	Chair election
From:  	kogan@umbc.edu
Date:  	Wed, April 10, 2019 10:55 pm
To:  	lacourse@umbc.edu
Cc:  	mathstat_faculty-group@umbc.edu (less)
rous@umbc.edu
hrabowski@umbc.edu

Dear Dean LaCourse,

This week my Department is electing a new Chair, and the ballots should be
counted on Monday, April 15th at 3pm. The only candidate for the position
is Professor Animikh Biswas who joined the Department from Univ. of North
Carolina-Charlotte in 2013.

Dr. Biswas is a leader in an emerging field of "dynamic CV and applications."
Indeed his Univ. of North Carolina-Charlotte CV lists

A. Biswas, Maximal principle in commutant lifting and systems, Chapter VI.5
in Metric constrained interpolation, commutant lifting and systems 657 - 686.
by C. Foias, A. E. Frazho, I. Gohberg and M. A. Kaashoek, O.T. Adv. Appl.
vol. 100, (1998), Birkhauser

as item 24 under the CV publications section.

The other CV currently available at Dr. Biswas' UMBC web site lists the same
research work under a new rubric "PUBLICATIONS (Other)." The current CV
distributed by Dr. Biswas does not list this publication at all.
Disappearing publications are unusual, but not unheard of in this day
and age (see e.g. the Ted Hill story published last year in Quillette).
What makes Dr. Biswas' publication in vol. 100 really special is that it
does not exist. The volume ends at page 581, and Dr. Biswas is not listed
among contributors in the table of contents. At this time I do not know
how many additional non existing publications have been listed on Dr. Biswas'
different CVs.

This innovation opens the door to rapid increase in research productivity
reporting that in turn may influence the Department and the University
prestige nationally and, perhaps, internationally.

Shortly after April 15th the election results will be reported to you. As
a Dean you will appoint a Chair who, as per our Bylaws, "represents the
department to the administration and the outside world." Dr. John Pinkston 
spent many years working for the US Government, and as a UMBC administrator. 
Dr. Pinkston was quoted as saying "Do not do anything you will be ashamed of 
if it appears tomorrow in Washington Post." I wish you to make the right 
appointment decision.

Respectfully,

Jacob