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How difficult is it to get an academic position in applied mathematics when your PhD is in electrical engineering?
How difficult is it to get an assistant professor position in a department (e.g., applied math) while you have a PhD degree from another area (e.g., electrical engineering)? Particularly, when you target only relatively good departments (top 20~30).
If it makes any difference, I am particularly thinking of becoming professor of applied math with an EE degree.
update: I don't know exactly what constitutes mathematical research in the eyes of mathematicians, but I can say there are some really theoretical subjects needed in my research. For example random matrix theory and empirical processes are prevalent in my research area. However, in spite of my great interest, I haven't been able to (or prohibited from doing) work on purely theoretical part of the problems. So I mostly have applied the existing theoretical results. Developing optimization algorithms with provable convergence guarantees, perhaps in statistical sense of it, are also important in the area I worked in. However, I don't think optimization is considered an interesting area for mathematicians.

Do you have research in the field? And have you done postdocs?

@Davidmh: My research relies heavily on probability theory, statistics, and optimization. I am doing a postdoc right now, but it's still with an ECE professor.

And how much of it is mathematics research level? Ie, how much of that is actual new maths instead of applications of known results to EE problems? This should be added to the question.

@Davidmh: I updated my question.

It sounds like you are, at least culturally, a bit distant from the mathematical community.  You write " I don't know exactly what constitutes mathematical research in the eyes of mathematicians" That's understandable given your training, but it's clearly not a good sign if you're trying to join a math department.  I also wonder if you are using "pure/applied" in the same way as math departments would: please be aware that "applied mathematics" is mathematics!

Also: you say that you have been "prohibited" from doing theoretical mathematics work.  One of the great qualities of theoretical mathematics is that no one is prohibited from doing it (so I'm not sure what you mean).  You also write: "However, I don't think optimization is considered an interesting area for mathematicians." Optimization has been an interesting area for mathematicians for at least 400 years.  I have a PhD student (in theoretical mathematics) whose thesis problem is an optimization problem.  All in all I recommend that you seek out some mathematical contacts.

@PeteL.Clark Thanks for your comments. First I have to mention that I didn't intend to trivialize or degrade any area of mathematics. To me any area of mathematics has interesting and very challenging problems. The difference I see is only the level of abstractness and the breadth of the frontiers in different fields.
Regarding my comment on mathematical research, I said that only because I don't know where the boundaries are drawn. My impression is that for some mathematicians certain areas of math are not abstract enough to be considered as research math. Maybe that's just my impression.

@PeteL.Clark I also said that "I am prohibited ..." in the sense that for EE students (or maybe engineering students in general), the nature of advisor student relations is usually in a way that makes any attempt to learn (e.g., taking math courses) or do research in theoretical subjects very difficult. Even journals and conferences require your work to have some important application in EE, but they don't care much about elegance of the theoretical work if there is any.

@S.B.: I didn't construe your remarks as trivializing or degrading anything.  Also: the mathematical community has room for both extreme abstraction and extreme concreteness.  In the right context, each is definitely a virtue, and they need not be mutually exclusive.

Your title seems to ask the opposite question from the body.

I don't know exactly what constitutes mathematical research in the eyes of mathematicians, — It will be virtually impossible to get an academic position in mathematics unless you fix that.

Even journals and conferences require your work to have some important application in EE — This is only true of EE journals and conferences. There are others.

@JeffE I meant that as an outsider I don't know which subjects of research most mathematicians agree to be interesting. For example, I feel that research in combinatorics and graph theory is perceived differently from research analysis, geometry, topology etc. Regarding the journals, I already have a couple of papers published in CS and math journals. It seems that some of them treat outsiders more harshly in their reviews, though.

Most topologists think topology is more interesting than graph theory. Most graph theorists think that is more interesting than (the rest of) topology. And they both think math is more interesting than whatever EEs do. You just have to aim your work at the right audience.

How difficult it is to get a position in another field depends enormously on your specific interests and background.  Moving from electrical engineering to applied mathematics may be pretty reasonable, since there are some research areas that are widely considered part of both fields, such as control theory.  If you already work in the intersection, then you'll have some flexibility in your job search.  You'll have a much tougher time if you're proposing to change your research interests, or if you work on a topic that is not commonly studied in applied math departments, even if it could be.
A first test is whether you can find anyone with your background and interests in an applied math department.  If you can't find anyone, then it may be difficult to become the first.  (It could still be worth a try, but you shouldn't get your heart set on doing something unprecedented.)  If you can find such people, then you have role models.  At that point, you can start looking at the web pages and CVs of people who have made the transition.  Where do they publish?  How do they present themselves and their work?  Can you see any differences from people working in electrical engineering?  Of course you don't need to imitate these people too closely, but at least you'll have examples of what has been well received by applied math departments.  Some things can be adjusted on short notice, while others take time.  If you're a little further from fitting in, doing a postdoc in applied math may help bridge the gap.

I know people in applied math (and even (pure) math) departments who work on the general research subject I am working on. However, as far as I know they are all mathematician by training (math PhDs). Frankly, I'm considering applied math because I find it difficult to tolerate the academic culture in EE departments. I really enjoy theoretical research, but that is not encouraged in EE departments. Even the people who supposedly do theoretical research, do not have enough mathematical knowledge and are not really interested in mathematics.

In my opinion, people in EE often don't have mathematical depth and rarely care about rigorous theoretical work. Also, I think there is too much emphasis on application in their research.

@S.B.: It sounds like you'll be happier in a math department.  One important factor to consider is getting strong letters of recommendation from people who will be well known in math departments (although they don't have to be in math departments themselves): you'll need letters that reinforce how well you'll fit in.  Good luck with your job search!

Thank you very much for your response. It is my impression that I will be happier in a math department as well, but I guess it will be tough to get a position there. I'll try to follow your advice on recommendation letters though.

@S.B. I share your frustration with the culture in EE departments, and have wondered about how I would fit in in other departments as well. Great question/answer.

@S.B. "but that is not encouraged in EE departments" - even if that is true for the majority of cases, there are lots of EE departments, and certainly some are very theoretical, where everyone does information theory and random matrices and no one touches circuits.

@ChrisWhite I disagree about the EE depts. that are supposedly theory-inclined. There are a couple of professors here and there that really do solid theoretical work. However, most of the other professors, some of whom are well-known in their fields, do not have sufficiently strong math background yet they are branded as theoreticians or sometimes even mathematicians in EE. This is of course based on my experience.

theoretical research...is not encouraged in EE departments. — Not true.  You're just in the wrong EE department.

@JeffE With the exception of joint EE & CS departments in top-tier schools, I don't think there are many other departments that encourage serious theoretical work. Actually, I think if those departments each divide into separate EE and CS then you wouldn't see significant difference from other EE depts.

I'm quite comfortable with the implication that "encourage serious theoretical work" = "top tier"! And, no, that's definitely not restricted to joint EECS departments.

@JeffE, i would certainly agree.  in fact, i think there are too many EE departments with research leaning to heavily into the theoretical.  not practical enough to be of salience to engineering.  being heavy on math is okay, but the math has to be about something real for it to really be about engineering.

@robertbristow-johnson Whatever. All math is about something real.

then i guess we differ about the meaning of the term "something real".  i am going by the semantic that not all thoughts that exist in a person's imagination are about things "real".  "reality" and "imagination" (or "conception") are not synonymous.

The comments and the other answer have mainly addressed whether your research area would be a fit in an applied math department.  Let's assume it is.  There's another, equally important side to the equation.  The willingness of a department to hire faculty with doctorates in other fields varies dramatically by the department and university, at least in my limited experience.  This is more a question of culture than of science.
First, at many universities applied math is just an unofficial group of faculty within a mathematics department.  I think that your chances of getting hired into a mathematics department are very slim.
Applied mathematics is a more interdisciplinary field, and is generally more open-minded culturally with respect to disciplinary boundaries, especially since many universities don't offer a degree in applied mathematics.  But applied math is a small field and it's still true that in many departments your application is likely to be tossed out because of the name of your degree.  I was a grad student during a faculty search at a prominent applied math department in the US, and I don't think they would ever have considered hiring someone with a degree outside of applied mathematics.  In the University where I work now, departmental boundaries are very thin and we have hired multiple faculty whose doctorate is in another field (though there was certainly resistance from some faculty).
One way you can help yourself a lot is to get a recommendation letter from someone who is on the inside of the applied mathematics community.  If, say, a SIAM fellow says that you're truly an applied mathematician, you will immediately have street cred.

Did I really just write street cred in an academic context?

Well, academic cred is a bit long, ac cred sounds like  it is short for accreditation (and the less said about aca cred and acade cred the better).


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Finding a field of interest for my PhD
I'm a fifth year pure mathematics student and after this year I should get a Master degree (I'm from Europe). As you might know, this should be the time I decide (or at least seriously start thinking about) whether I should pursue a PhD or go work in the industry.
My main problem with pursuing a PhD is that I haven't found any topic particularly interesting or passionate about, and I think I have quite a wide mathematical education. I can easily get into some area when I'm studying for exams and such, but nothing more than that. I have to admit that I'm indifferent regarding most stuff in my life. While I was in high school, I had interests in number theory and prime distribution, but that has slowly gone away.
Having said all that, I did somewhat enjoy tutoring/helping younger students and explaining stuff to them. I'd also like to think that I would enjoy doing research in mathematics, but not sure.
So my question is:
How should I find out what is the field of my interest (and whether it exists at all)? Is my lack of interest a red flag for pursuing a PhD?

This is actually a question to ask yourself. No one else can answer this for you. You should decide what career path you want and act accordingly :)
All the best.

Do you have the opportunity to try doing some research before making the decision on whether to do a PhD?

@Tara There are no REUs or similar stuff where I live. For my master thesis it'll probably be just going a bit deeper into some area and state/prove its important results. I don't know how long would it take to self study to start doing research, if you meant that, but I do indeed see that as an option.

Is my lack of interest a red flag for pursuing a PhD?

Yes, I think so.  PhD programs are for people who are so passionate about an academic subject that they are willing to endure the certainty of a long, hard period of apprenticeship and training for the possibility of a secure, moderately well-paid lifelong career in that subject.
In some academic fields, there is a good shot at parlaying a PhD into a lucrative career in business or industry.  (In others, this is really not the case.)  However, in the current job market there are few if any fields in which a PhD is a guaranteed paycheck.  A student who knows that she wants to take her mathematical skills, for instance, to business/industry, would probably have an easier, more pleasant life by starting work with a bachelor's or a master's degree and building her career sooner rather than later.  There are exceptions, but they would be better planned in advance: e.g., if you have a specific job in mind for which you specifically know having a PhD would be necessary or beneficial.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with liking a subject and being good at it but not being passionate about it.  You should then find what it is that you are passionate about.  It need not be career-oriented: many, many people work to live rather than live to work.  Just because you have a master's degree in mathematics does not mean that you need to pursue a career in which you use mathematics in any way!  I hope you find your passion...whatever it is.
Finally: one option that you haven't mentioned is to teach mathematics at the pre-university level.  In the US, a master's degree in your subject area makes you competitive for very strong high school teaching jobs, e.g. at amazing public high schools in desirable cities or elite private institutions.  The difference that an excellent school teacher can make has got to be at least as much as most academics, business people or industrialists.  In the unlikely event that Europe has a glut of excellent high school teachers, please consider coming to the United States, as I assure you that we do not.

Thanks for your thoughts, I'll consider teaching, though when I mentioned tutoring I meant explaining linear algebra or real analysis to students year younger than me; I haven't taught high school stuff anyone and I'm not sure whether it would be similar

It should be noted that in many places in Europe, one can't "just" teach in high school, even with a master's degree. E.g., in Germany and Austria, there is a special gradudate study "Teaching/Maths", which combines maths and pedagogy subjects. A degree in this program is a formal requirement for teaching maths in a public high school (and almost all schools are public around here).

Also, afaik, we actually do have more teachers than teaching jobs where I live. Presumably, because high school teacher is actually a quite well-respected and well-paid profession around here.

@xLeitix Yeah, where I live there is also a special graduate study for teaching maths, and it's usually required if you want a job in high school. I don't though know whether the market is saturated in that regard here.

I agree with what Pete wrote here, and I've sometimes expressed it in a stronger form: You should aim for a Ph.D. in mathematics only if you can't reasonably imagine yourself doing anything else instead.  That might be an overstatement, but I'm convinced that, if you're smart enough to get Ph.D. in mathematics, then you're smart enough for any of a lot of higher-paying careers. Only if all those careers look lousy compared to getting your Ph.D. should you get that Ph.D. You'll need a lot of enthusiasm to carry you past the difficulties that will surely arise in Ph.D. work.

A lot of the comments and answers I see here are orthogonal to my experience.  Subject matter? Career path?  Both irrelevant.  I entered graduate school with the intention of getting a Master's degree in Computer Science and left with a Ph.D. in Algebraic Geometry.  That happened because I met an inspiring professor---he could have been doing almost anything technical and I would have chosen him, not the subject matter.  I find my inspiration in people: Number Theory, Fluid Dynamics, Adaptive Algorithms---ist mir wurst, as they would say in Germany (I'm American).  Working with a great professor trumps the subject matter.
You have a strong technical education already.  If you are looking for direction, take a cue from it:  where is your life gradient pointing right now?  Mapping out a career path is great for some folks, for others it is the death of serendipity.  You never know.  I chose my graduate school because my girlfriend attended it.  The girlfriend didn't last, but the professor did.  And (serendipity) I met my wife there.
Good luck!

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Is it worthwhile to cite documentaries in personal statements?
When writing something to be read and scrutinized by academics, like a personal statement, will academics appreciate, respect, and value references to factual documentaries?
For example, I'd like to write about how a documentary on the criminal justice system motivated my interest in law. I'll also cite books, but words fail to describe the influence of this audiovisual documentary on deciding to study law.

Perhaps a worthwhile side-question is whether you should put citations in a personal statement. I think it's a very difficult question to answer. If you are writing a research statement as well you have to make sure there is a clear division between the theme of the two letters.

While this may vary somewhat by discipline, I would think that the faculty would be more interested in what you took away from this source of inspiration and how it shaped your perspective/career interests, rather than the actual source itself. (This assumes the documentary is somewhat mainstream and not endorsing fringe ideas that would seem extreme to academics in your field.) Many students and professionals are drawn to study a particular field not because they read a brilliant academic book or paper, but because they read a lay book on the topic or saw a documentary or television program that introduced them to certain issues. These less formal forms of media can be excellent gateways to academic study.
Personally, it was Pete Earley's book "Crazy" that sparked my interest in mental health policy. I referenced this in my graduate school applications, describing how it helped me connect my macro-scale interests in health interventions with my micro-scale interests in the pathology and treatment of severe mental illness. When I interviewed with programs, several faculty discussed this, and they seemed more interested in how I had connected to the ideas in the book then the fact that it wasn't a formal academic text.
Be careful with simply stating that "X had a huge influence on me and made me want to study y or fight injustice"; avoid generic statements. If you feel you are able to clearly state how the documentary impacted your career interests intellectually as well as emotionally, I see no reason not to include it. I also agree with the earlier comment - you might mention the name of the documentary or cite one particularly influential paper, but I'm not sure you need to cite works throughout the statement. (Of course, this may differ by discipline as well).

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Can journals share information about your submission?
Can journals share information about your submission or for that matter your entire submission at will? Is that fair game? Is this a varying practice based on who you submit to?
Is the general idea that the implications of sharing the notes and related content is trivial?

I reopened the question. I can't parse the last sentence, though, you might want to fix that.

In general, no, journals cannot arbitrarily share your submission with others—at least not before it's been accepted.
However, they can share your submission with:

Reviewers, so that the peer-review process can be completed
Other staff members within the publisher, which can be useful when a paper is submitted to the "wrong" section of a journal, or to the wrong journal, but is otherwise acceptable for publication.

Once the paper has been accepted and appropriate copyrights assigned, though, they can do more or less whatever they normally do in their publication and advertising process.

Really? I'm surprised - I'd have thought that a journal, having received a submission, could legally circulate it to any other journal that was contained within the same corporate entity. If you submit to Nature, couldn't the Nature editor then kick it downstairs to, say, Nature Communications or Nature Methods?

Purely for informational purposes and nothing more, . . . is there a link where say APS journals receive submissions. A portal say of sorts where a paper is received via the web, and perhaps something similar for nature? Again conversational  . . . no intentions but I think it might benefit someone.


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What can you do to supplement low grades for admission into masters programs that don't use GRE or GMAT?
To study in the USA, low grades can be supplemented by GRE or GMAT.
What can you do to supplement low grades to study in Europe (UK, Germany, France, Scandinavia), Oceania and South Africa?

I edited the title because I think the country is relevant to you mainly in that schools in these countries don't accept GRE/GMAT; if I'm wrong, please [edit] your post to clarify.

As far as I know, such programs will consider your GPA, GRE (general and/or subject test) or some equivalent tests, letters of recommendation, research experience and personal statement, or a subset of this list. Thus, it is really more precise to say that all of these factors supplement each other, rather than simply saying that only GRE and GPA supplement each other. Unless your GPA is lower than the cut-off line, which some programs impose, then it follows that good letters of recommendation, research experience and personal statement will help with your application. This will especially be true if you have exceptional academic achievement that is not reflected by the GPA, in which case the admission committee will likely overlook the low GPA.


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Would tenured professors who are charged with a crime generally be fired?
What's the usual (North American) universities' practice on dealing with tenured professors who have been criminally charged?  I've encountered two scenarios indirectly that could make some professors in some legal trouble.
Here the first scenario.  When I was an undergraduate student, a colleague told me that his ex-girlfriend called because she discovered a stalker near her home.  When he visited her to assess the situation, they bumped into the alleged stalker at the stairs of the apartment building.  She asked him to call the police.  He recognized that the alleged stalker was one of the professors in his department.  He did not report the alleged stalker to the police because he's afraid of repercussion.
Fast forward a few years.  Here the second scenario.  One of my friends dated a tenured professor.  The relation was abusive.  He (the professor) hit her badly that she called the police.  His mom begged my friend not to press charges because she's concerned about her son's future.
TL;DR: In theory or practice, would universities fire the professor who have been criminally charged?  I've asked several tenured professors casually with at least one of the scenarios.  They all agreed that nothing bad would happened to those professors even if their wrongdoings were reported to the police.

I imagine this would depend on the crime, so as a general question this is not answerable. Can you narrow it down somewhat?

For example, you might ask if there is an example of a tenured professor who is fired following criminal charges, or you could ask for an example of a university policy that explicitly addresses this.

Also, in both of your examples, no charges were filed; so, they don't seem relevant to the question.

@ff524 Sure. Let's rephrase the question as "does any university  fire any tenured professor based on a serious criminal conviction?"

@lacampane11a: yes, certainly. Particularly for crimes like murder and rape. The well publicized case of Amy Bishop is one example - I doubt they kept her on the payroll until she was formally convicted. For other crimes, particularly for "white collar" crimes, things will be more murky. I suspect this is not really much different than the way things work in any other large corporation. What sort of crime would it take for an upper-level manager at IBM to be fired?

Criminal acts are certainly a reason to revoke tenure.  In fact, this is probably one of the most common reasons.  It is possible to terminate the employment of a tenured professor as soon as the university learns that they have been charged with or suspected of a criminal action.  (This happened at my university: it was an extreme case.)  Terminating employment because of a criminal charge is obviously a quite precipitous act to take: I would be surprised if a university did this in any situation except one in which they are sure that the faculty member will/would be found guilty of the charge.  A tenured employee who was fired because of suspicion of criminal acts and was later found innocent of these acts would have, in many cases, a heck of a lawsuit against the university.  (Untenured employees might as well...)
The things that "you heard" sound a little dopey to me, honestly.  Tenure offers some measure of job security.  It does not confer any defense against or immunity from criminal acts.  Getting convicted of domestic violence is "something bad happening to the professor", right?  Not being able to carry out your duties because you are incarcerated is a sufficient reason to fire a tenured faculty member!  In the scenario with the "stalker" it is so unclear what happened or what was reported to whom that I would not be comfortable commenting on it.  Nevertheless, one can certainly imagine circumstances in which a tenured faculty member could be fired for stalking even without a criminal conviction.

Great theory. What do universities do in practice?  (See @user2379888's answer)

My answer included a link to an example at my university.  There are, alas, further examples, still at my university.  "What do universities do in practice?" Obviously there is a range of experiences.  The answer that you refer to made for very interesting reading.  Some comments: (i) this was a "white-collar crime".  I would expect universities to view violent crimes quite differently.  (ii) Did you read the part of the article in which UWisc admitted that it made a mistake in allowing Shohet to get off so lightly?

So far as I know, all American universities reserve the right to revoke tenure under certain circumstances.  If you want a more definitive answer, you should read the regulations about tenure in a specific university of interest.   If you want another practical example, see http://www.redandblack.com/cops/uga-files-motion-to-revoke-art-professor-s-tenure/article_cda60f50-a214-11e2-9e36-001a4bcf6878.html?mode=jqm.

Thanks for your analysis (white-collar VS violent crime) and your observation. Yes, I read the Shohet case from @user2379888's answer.

Yes, there have been. The case of Prof. Lasaga at Yale is one of the more egregious examples of malfeasance on the part of a faculty member, but also a case where the person stepped down well  before being convicted (more background info here). I am sure that even though the language was of voluntary termination ("stepping down") that there was little choice for Lasaga otherwise. In lesser cases outside of the public eye, I am sure there are many professors who have also been asked to step down or to take an early retirement instead of being publicly fired.
Tenure only means our contracts don't have end-dates or renewal dates. It doesn't mean we cannot be fired for crimes, for being indicted for a crime, for other cause, or in some cases just simply being restructured out of our jobs due to the economic needs of our university.

Leon Shohet went to prison for some stuff he did with a federal grant, and U Wisc. didn't fire him; see http://www.wpri.org/WIInterest/Lueders8.1.pdf

This link is broken.

I though it might be instructive, for insight into how we arrived at the present situation, to look back in history to the days when European universities tried criminal charges against both faculty members and students in their own internal courts (they'd negotiated settlements with their host states, whereby the ordinary criminal courts had no jurisdiction over university members).  The sentencing options available to the university courts included both imprisonment and expulsion from the university.  From the case studies described by Rait (1931, Life in the Medieval University, Library of Alexandria), it's pretty clear that the severity of offence needed for a sentence of expulsion from the university was greater than the severity of offence needed for a sentence of imprisonment; indeed, the sentence of expulsion from the university was used mostly in cases where a student or faculty member had escaped from prison while serving time for a previous offence, or had failed to appear in court to face the charges.

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How best to organize a review paper that includes some of my own data?
I have written a review article with a target journal in mind. The content focuses on a particular technique in biology, and in the paper I propose a data analysis approach to be used for future studies. To help explain the intuition behind the technique, I have produced some straight-forward simulated data, organized into a a handful of figures. The experimental results are not particularly novel, but they are most valuable to illustrate a point -- how different quantitative methods compare to each other.
How would you suggest I write a review that includes primary (but not novel) results, in the framework of a review? My current organization is an extended introduction > short methods > results > discussion and future perspectives. A trivial matter could be to move the methods to the end, but I wonder if having discrete results and discussion sections is appropriate.

I have seen examples of the type of paper you're writing, but it's not a very common format. Most likely, the journal is going to dictate what you need to do. That said, my decision in this situation would depend on how much your simulated data contribute to the overall manuscript.
For instance, if your example is included solely as a sort of cartoon illustration, then very little or no explanation of how it was generated would be necessary. This does not seem to be the case with your example though.
An alternative approach would be to give a bare minimum description of how the data were generated in the same paragraph where you describe or expound on the theoretical point you're illustrating. Whether or not this makes for a clunky paragraph depends mostly on how much information you think you need to convey.
One final thought: if the simulated data are enough to develop into a separate methods manuscript, you might want to go that route, and leave your review article a standard synthesis of previous work.

Does the journal dictate a specific format?  Usually this is not the case for review papers, but sometime bio journals are very particular.
If not, you could organize the paper along the natural lines of the flow of ideas, rather than trying to fit it onto a Procrustian bed of methods/results
Introduction --> Review of Technique ---> Explanation of Need for Analysis Problem --> Proposal of New Analysis Method --> Verification on Simulated Data --> Discussions and Future


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What is an effective means to educate non-academic colleagues of the importance and time needed for Adjunct Lecturing research?
My situation is, I am an Adjunct Lecturer (Physics); however, to support myself, I work full-time as a high school teacher.  Essentially, the situation is that an Adjunct Lecturer is working amongst non-academic colleagues, who unfortunately see the research as nothing more than a 'hobby'.
What is an effective means of helping these non-academic colleagues comprehend the importance and time-needed for the research involved with being an Adjunct Lecturer?

Would you classify yourself as not having an institutional affiliation (for research purposes)? If so, add the [tag:independent-researcher] tag, since, I think this is a problem faced by many unaffiliated researchers.

Yes, I certainly do have an institutional affiliation, thank you for that - tag added!

For one thing, in my experience, the post of "adjunct lecturer" is usually one whose duties are only teaching, so if you have research responsibilities as well, I can understand people not being aware of that.

@NateEldredge actually my duties are entirely research and no teaching

As @NateEldredge mentioned, technically research is probably not part of the duties of an Adjunct Lecturer.
That being said, you could explain that as an adjunct it is natural for you to develop your CV further so that you may be considered for teaching higher-level courses, increase in rank, service on interesting committees, etc., in which case research will be important.

I've never seen an adjunct lecturer get promotions or committee posts in the US. (Only a few get to even teach upper-division courses.) Is this common in your area?

@shane how about making that a Question?


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Is ProQuest a reputable company?
What are the possible benefits or consequences of submitting my dissertation to ProQuest?
My university recommends submitting dissertations to ProQuest. I am wondering about the practices and academic reputation of this company, and whether or not it is in my best interests to follow the recommendation of my institution.
Does ProQuest support academic work? Do they charge exorbitant fees to access their content?

Heavily opinionated question. Define 'reputable'. Wikipedia is not a publisher.

Neither "make excessively large revenue and profits" nor "make content difficult and expensive to access" are defining characteristics of a disreputable publisher.

Some words about this company, that seems to be more in the business of aggregating content than actual publishing: scholarlyoa.com/2014/04/15/introduction-to-super-closed-access-journals/#more-3406

I have removed the [tag:disreputable-publishers] tag from this question because the tag is about publishers that engage in unethical/dishonest practices, which doesn't seem to be what this question is about. (Unless you [edit] your question to clarify what you think is unethical or dishonest about ProQuest's practices)

I don't think Proquest is really a publisher so much as just a repository.  They don't make any editorial choices about the material they host.
I don't have any information about their financials, but accessing dissertations through them is moderately difficult and expensive.  (I think getting a copy of a thesis from them is on the order of US$50.)  I think of them as the dissertation archive of last resort - I would only order from them after exhausting all other options (author's website, university's library, etc).
My feeling is that you might as well submit your thesis to them, since it is good to know that future researchers looking for your thesis would always have Proquest as a fallback option.    However, you should make an effort to make your thesis available through more convenient (and free) means as well.  Post it on your professional web page.  If your field uses arXiv or a similar open access repository, upload it there as well.  (Since you will presumably be publishing papers and/or books based on your thesis, check first that the relevant publishers are okay with having your thesis available for free online.  Probably the major journals/publishers in your field will have similar policies.)

The role of ProQuest for dissertations is not a "publisher". Even if you "publish" your dissertation with them, it is still considered "unpublished" work in many fields. And you can go on to publish exactly the same content in other forms, e.g. as a book or divided into papers.  In this sense, they are like a preprint server.
For dissertations, ProQuest is a repository. The main service they provide is giving access to dissertations that would otherwise be very difficult to locate.  Traditionally, they did this by keeping huge archives of microfilm; now I suspect it is more digital.
In my experience, there are only two long-term archive systems commonly used for unpublished theses in the U.S.:
1) The institution itself usually keeps a copy in the library, perhaps on microfilm. More recently, institutions have begun moving to an electronic model, often called "ETD".
2) ProQuest, which has gone through many name changes but was founded in 1938.
Personal webpages are great, but they are not really a long-term solution: who can guarantee an academic's work will be available on a personal web page after they retire?  A few fields have sites such as arxiv.org which have a potential to be long-term repositories. But otherwise the options above are about it.
So, why send your thesis to ProQuest? It's a personal choice. But doing so does help ensure that the thesis will be available if someone wants to read it in 50 years' time, when you plan to be retired on a tropical island without email.

Proquest is not a traditional publisher. I would compare them more to a vanity press than a predatory journal, but since they do not do any binding or even ISBN registering, it is not even fair to call them a vanity press.
While it is likely they make large profits, although I don't know, I would say they are fully reputable. Their copyright transfer is very permissive

Authors enter into a non-exclusive publishing agreement with ProQuest, where the author keeps the copyright in their graduate work. Authors are paid a 10% royalty for sales in all formats.

Interesting, I don't remember seeing anything about royalties when I submitted my thesis to them in 2009.  I wonder if I have any coming to me?  I'm sure Proquest doesn't have my current contact info, and I don't see any way on their website to update it.

@NateEldredge I couldn't find anything either. It seems like a reasonable question for the main site.

Well, I sent them an email. If I hear back anything useful maybe I will make a self answered question.

@NateEldredge did you ever hear anything back?

Oh, guess I missed this the first time around.  Yes, I did.  They confirmed that I'm entitled to 10% of all sales, said that so far no copies of my thesis have been sold :-) and that if and when I accumulate $25 in royalties they will send a check.  Apparently I gave them the address of a family member, which is still good.

I submitted my dissertation to ProQuest in 2009 and today, to my great surprise, I received a letter in the mail from ProQuest notifying me that I have a royalty check coming to me.  I called and it looks like I'm going to be $32 richer.  Woohoo!


text:
What must one do if the time at which a conference talk was to be presented is assigned to someone else?
I recently submitted an abstract to a talk as a contributed paper. I was informed, through email, that the paper was scheduled to be presented in person on XXX date. The email also said that I could look for my name on a link mentioned in the email; going to the link, I found that my name was not on the list at all. I checked it multiple times, but my name was simply not there.
I found that the time at which I was assigned to give my presentation was on the list, but with someone else's name and paper title. I assumed that this was a timing and/or update problem, and left it at that for some time. However, this was not resolved even after two days. Thus I sent an email regarding this situation to the email address that was in the email, saying that if I had any questions I could email that address. I still have not received any email, and the conference/talk is coming up in about a month. This is the very first presentation that I will be giving, and I am not sure what to do in this situation. My questions are as follows:

Did I deal with this situation correctly, sending an email to the "query'' email address?
What must I do if I do not receive an email in a few days?

P.S. As it was inquired in the question, the conference that I submitted this to is the AMS Fall Sectional Meeting in San Francisco.

Edit: It looks like the situation has been fixed and my name is now on the list. Thank you to all who offered me advice!

Additionally, I am not sure if this is a common situation in academia, as I am extremely new to all of this.

One small comment, since you mention being new: some large conferences have multiple sessions in parallel. Are you sure this isn't what is happening here?

For those in other fields: AMS (American Mathematical Society) sectional meetings are reputable regional conferences.  The number of attendees is typically in the hundreds.  They are typically organized by a local committee of academics, assisted by some professional staff from the Society.  They do run multiple parallel sessions.

Now that you've identified the conference as the AMS Western Section meeting in San Francisco, I looked at the conference's program web site and your talk is definitely listed.  It's in the Session for Contributed Papers I, Saturday October 25 at 10:30 AM in Thorton Hall room 325.  (If you don't see it, try searching the web page for your name.)
Perhaps you overlooked it the first time?  Or else they originally omitted it, and it has since been fixed.

I think that they had omitted it and it's now been fixed, as my name was not there yesterday night when I checked it. Thank you!

@sdeva: You're welcome! I expect within a few days you'll get a reply to your email with an apology for the error. Enjoy the conference and good luck with your talk!

I do not think this usual. How big is the conference? If it is small, it is possible that the organizers made a mistake without realizing it. Inquiring over the email was absolutely the right thing to do. I would follow up a week from your original inquiry if you don't hear back from them sooner.

The conference that I submitted this to is the AMS Fall Sectional Meeting in San Francisco.

I think that they had omitted my name and it's now been fixed, as my name was not there yesterday night when I checked it. Thank you!

Don't run! Walk!
Keep in mind that organizing conferences usually involves a huge amount of work including organizing the received abstracts and papers, managing their reviewers, managing the conference place and preparing packages, etc. They have to solve your problem but don't expect them to answer you instantly, they may have other emails to answer. Be patient for another two or three days (if this does not disturb your deadlines and schedules).

Did I deal with this situation correctly, sending an email to the
  "query'' email address?

Yes, sending the email was your only way to contact the conference. Could you travel to the city of the conference sooner to ask your question? No!

What must I do if I do not receive an email in a few days?

I suggest you to do these things;

Send them another email and ask your questions again;
Search the website of the conference to see if there is another email address provided in the webpages and forward your email to them too;
If they have any fax number, send them a fax and ask your problem;
If there is a phone number provided, call that number too.

However, I usually do not trust a conference which does not answers it's emails and do not care about their participant's problems. At least, it's your right to contact them and consult them such problems.
Once it happened to me that I had some questions about the conference deadlines and schedule and I sent an email to the conference's contact person's email address; but they did not answer my email. They did not even answered my phone calls or another emails too (even after one or two months).
I did not send them my full paper and did not continue my application process for that conference. I simply brought out my paper from that conference. After that, I learn a very good lesson from this: I never send my papers to the conferences which are not well-known in my field.

Minor nitpick - what's the relevance of the stuff in bold  to the answer?

@New_new_newbie Don't run! Walk!? He would better wait some more than two days; as stated in the first paragraph of the answer, and not become nervous soon.

The conference that I submitted this to is the AMS Fall Sectional Meeting in San Francisco.

I think that they had omitted my name and it's now been fixed, as my name was not there yesterday night when I checked it. Thank you!

You should definitely call the Conference organizing committee three days after sending an e-mail. They have to clarify this situation.
Be sure to have the e-mail in front of you when calling.
Your message could be lost in tons of those other complain emails from other members.
I have organized a few congresses myself and this is definitely a technical problem that the organizer has to address.

I have never seen an academic conference in my field with a phone number listed for the organizing committee.

@ff524 In my field, it is usual to see a phone number, fax number and postal address of organizing committee office besides their email addresses in their contact us page. However, I don't think it is a field-related custom.

@ff524 Sure, but the members of the organizing committee have personal work webpages, and office phone numbers are usually on them.

@Federico in my field, it would generally not be considered appropriate to contact academic conference organizers at their work phone number for matters related to the conference, unless they list the number on the conference website or otherwise encourage you to call it. (The exception to this would be if it's someone at a professional society whose job is organizing conferences. Or if the situation is really urgent, which this isn't, yet.)

Usually, there is also a phone number to a secretary, who is doing the administrative tasks.

I think that they had omitted my name and it's now been fixed, as my name was not there yesterday night when I checked it. Thank you!

authors: Vladimir F Героям слава


text:
Same data, new method, same outcome – can I publish it?
I applied a new method to a data set, which had already been analyzed in a research paper. My method is generally considered better, but it only slightly modifies the results and does not affect the conclusion of the paper aside from improving the accuracy of results by a small amount. The paper is about a classification problem.
Is it possible to write a research paper about this?

Are you asking if this is scientifically acceptable? This doesn't seem to be exactly about statistics; it may be a better fit on academia.SE.

As written, this question is incredibly vague. In general this can be and has been done. Are you concerned with the statistical validity of your new technique, or the legitimacy of re-using the prior data set, or both?

@Wrzlprmft very loosely, a classification problem is a computational/statistical problem where you try to find a mathematical function that will successfully distinguish between two types of objects based on their numerical properties. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_classification

@Bitwise: I see; I thought this was somehow referring to the issue itself and not the content of the paper.

@Wrzlprmft I think the scope of the 'punishability' tag should be limited to questions of novelty, significance, and scope. Authorship, ethics, and copyright issues are really a completely different category.

@ff524: Agreed.

I'd say it is difficult to answer this question in general. You should ask yourself if you are contributing something significantly novel to the academic discussion. For example, if you reanalyse the dataset and get completely different or new results, then it is probably worth publishing. On the other hand, if you only slightly modify the statistical method and arrive at the same results, it is probably not worth it. Before beginning the analysis, you could ask yourself if this dataset is particularly big or of good quality or if there are other, better datasets out there (in which case a reanalysis of this particular one might be unproductive).
To give an example, in the UK there have been many papers on the effectiveness of breast cancer screening that essentially analysed the same dataset using different methods. These methods were fairly complex and the various approaches have significantly advances our understanding of the advantages and possible detriments of breast cancer screening. In this case, publishing multiple papers was justified.

If the new method is significantly more efficient (e.g. able to obtain the solution in minutes rather than hours or even days) then it would be worth publishing even if the conclusions are exactly the same. Indeed, in such scenario you may be looking for finding the same conclusion, just more efficiently.

In the bioinformatics field, for example, it is perfectly acceptable to use the same dataset for a publication demonstrating the analysis using a different method. There are (at least) two possibilities:

Both the dataset and the method are not novel, but applying the new method on the dataset results in novel insight about the studied system. An example could be two recent papers in PNAS. In one a dataset and some statistical analysis approach was used to demonstrate divergent inflammatory responses in mouse and human. In the second paper other group used the same dataset with some other (not novel) methods to demonstrate the contrary.
The dataset is not new but the method is novel. This case is very common in Bioinformatics and aims to use a dataset for which the outcome is relatively well known. It could also be used to demonstrate how the new method leads to novel insight.

I would stress that in the first case the new insight aspect has more weight as neither the dataset or the method are novel. In the second case this is not so important, as far as the new method results in some other advantage.


text:
PhD in GIS after Bachelor Degree in Computer Science
I have a bachelors degree in Computer Science & Engineering and have specific experience in geographic information systems (GIS). I am planning to enroll in a GIS PhD program and have searched for United States universities with GIS PhD programs. However, none of these PhD programs are offered from a Computer Science department: all programs are in either a Geography department or Civil Engineering department or Earth Science department. Should I apply to these other departments even though I come from a Computer Science background?
Can a student complete his PhD program in a university department other then the department of his undergraduate work?

We really need a generic question about "Can I apply for grad school in area X with an undergrad degree in area Y?" with a generic answer of "Yes, of course you can."

When you go to a mainly geographic department, you will have to study courses for projections, spatial databases, geo-servers and mapping frameworks, which you already probably know through your job. Geographic departments have people without a programming background and therefore these people have to be trained almost from scratch, so they can do this type of research. On the other hand, many of these departments have some relatively young professors with a CS background who are really looking forward to work with CS people like you (instead of geographers) to mainly progress their research. In that sense, I am sure you can be accepted at such a program but prepare to have to take courses on things you are already familiar with.
On the other hand there are many "pure" CS professors, working on "pure" CS departments, who also do GIS related research. If you look at more CS focused GIS conferences, like ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS you will find many papers by mainly CS people on GIS related subjects. So, you can search for possible advisors there, by looking at the papers that get published in such venues in the last 2-3 years. If you find some papers that deal with subjects that you are interested in, you can find out in what universities the authors work, perhaps contact them (advice on how to approach potential advisors is scattered everywhere on this site) and take it from there. It does not always matter the "title" of the PHD (if it says GIS or not) but IHMO it is more important to work with people that do interesting things, close to your interests. So, do not exclude the possibility to do GIS research on a pure CS department.

Thanks, I got Right person here - http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~shekhar/

"Should I apply to these other departments even though I come from a Computer Science background?"

Absolutely! Degree programs vary per institution in scope and means, but the ends are often the same, after completing the program you will have a PhD in GIS. You can use this to your advantage to tailor a degree to your strengths, providing its offered at the institution(s) of your choice.

"Can a student complete his PhD program in a university department
  other then the department of his undergraduate work?"

Yes, a student accepted to a GIS PhD program could complete it in a department other than Computer Science, provided the institution attending offered such a degree program.
I'm sure some schools want certain backgrounds, similar to how most seek out a certain GPA. This will vary for each university you are interested in as each university is unique and offers unique programs and opportunities.
Open data driven via GIS maps is going to rise in demand astronomically. As well as the rest of the tenets of openness shall; but in your case, I think you are tailored for a gig in open journalism, and you should focus on web development while not pursuing your PhD.
Learn web development with your GIS PhD. Your Computer Science background should make learning web development relatively effortless.
This is not a great answer in terms of a definitive answer, but your possibilities are endless:
Further resources:

GIS PHD Dilemma podcast
list of gis programs and certifications
Yahoo! Answers

I checked UTD & UIUC have PhD GIS with touch of Computer Science but some courses are not related to CS in this programme, should i apply for that?

only you can answer that, but they sound like you should!

Please once Check Both link: [UIUC] (http://www.geog.illinois.edu/grad/gis/)
[UTD]
(http://www.utdallas.edu/admissions/graduate/degrees/detail.php?d=321)


text:
How will expulsion for physical abuse and sexual misconduct affect a student's future educational career?
I recently had a university student (my ex) expelled from my undergrad university when he was found responsible for physical abuse and sexual misconduct. How would this expulsion affect his future educational career?
How would the expulsion affect him if he tried to apply to law school?

I'm sorry to hear about the abuse and misconduct. I'm ashamed that it still happens nowadays.

Do remember that any consequences his suffers are his fault for doing what he did, not your fault for reporting it.

I feel like this question treads too dangerously along several issues. If this were a question worded as "What if a theoretical student..." then it wouldn't be as bad, but I feel there is a major conflict of interest and very serious situation being presented here that needs to be dealt with through advisors.

This will extremely depend on the country. I don't know, is it here silently assumed that when country is not mentioned it is the US, or not?

@VladimirF This is in the U.S.

Does anyone know how would this affect him if he tried to apply to law school at some point?

@Ali The chance of him getting into law school is virtually impossible if this is on his record.

@Compass, how do you know?

@Ali It is already very difficult to get into a professional program following college. The goal of any application at the very least, is to make the good stuff outweigh the bad or not great stuff. Detractors such as a criminal record, and expulsion make it significantly harder because of the weight those things place on the "bad" side of an application.

I find this question to be somewhat strange — why do you care about this person's future career prospects? Taking your word for it, then obviously this is a horrible turn of events for you, and I hope you are able to move on with your life and that justice prevails. However, if one were to play devil's advocate, then, when viewed in another light, asking about what the repercussions of your ex's actions are kind of sounds like you are playing the "executioner;" after going to that step, it's not too hard to think that maybe there isn't something else sinister going on here ...

There is no sinister plot here at all. I can tell you opnely and honestly, it has given me closure to know that my ex isn't getting away with the two years of abuse our relationship was. I want to go to court, but, then I wonder am I going too far? But if I don't will he do it to someone else? I almost couldnt do the university hearing. I thought that with expulsion, universities at least would be notified and keep an eye on him. It seems doubtful. I then wonder if all my work for prevention was for nothing. More than his career prospects, this question is what security measures will be taken?

If he were to attend law school and became a lawyer, what would that one day do to an innocent person? A sick and abusive person using the law?

There are judges to decide what is the appropriate consequence for this person's behavior, please do yourself and society a favor and have this person face judiciary authorities. On the strict subject of academia, there are people who finished their education after facing criminal charges and even prison.

I have decided to go through with the legal action

This answer assumes the person in question has been convicted of those crimes. If he has not, things will be easier (but not a cakewalk).
The conviction and expulsion will affect him quite significantly, given that some universities require applicants to declare both certain criminal convictions (usually sex, violence, or drug convictions) and any previous expulsions. Trying to hide convictions is a very bad idea.
Sure, you can find a university who does not require a declaration (or will admit the applicant anyway, if the university is sufficiently satisfied that the student has reformed) - the likelihood of such probably varies by country. I suspect life as a graduate student would be very difficult (getting teaching positions may be hard).
This question reminds me of an article I read a while ago. This man was a convicted murderer, and has turned his life around and obtained a PhD in psychology.
Any specific advice would be subject to the laws of his country, the policies of the universities, and more specific details of the conviction (read: off-topic for StackExchange).
There will always be roadblocks, especially with sex and abuse convictions. Repentance and perseverance may clear enough to find a path through, but it wouldn't be easy.

Regarding your second paragraph, there are countries where asking about criminal record of prospective employees is uncommon or even illegal (except for things like law enforcement, etc.).

I have applied to my share of universities (decades ago) and helped young people with a total of 9 applications to Canadian institutions. Not one asked about criminal convictions or expulsions.

@Jigg I'm surprised. Any examples of country? Would this mean a convicted sex offender can easily became a teacher, or a thief can easily get a retail job?

@KateGregory I guess country is a bit more important! Google is great at turning up universities that ask about your convictions, but not so much for the null result. I've edited the answer a bit.

@Moriarty I don't know about other countries, but in Belgium specifically, when I had a paid internship for the Flemish Catholic School Network as a staff member for the overarching organization, I had to get an excerpt from my criminal record that proved that I was not a convicted sex offender.

@Moriarty the job applications might ask (not for retail but for teacher - certainly school volunteering requires a background check) but it doesn't follow that the university does.

@Moriarty I might have been a step too far with 'illegal' although it is certainly considered protected personal data, in my experience in Switzerland, you can go to any university and study, research and teach without being asked a record. I was asked one when I did substitute teaching for middle school, that fell in the 'etc.'. I briefly worked in retail as a student and wasn't asked to show a record.

@Jigg Despite not being asked to show an official record (which I agree you shouldn't have to do), did you still have to tick a box somewhere saying "I have no criminal convictions besides minor traffic offences" or something of that nature? I suspect that is much more common than a request for an official record.

In the UK, as I remember, PhD applications include a statement of criminal records (self reported), but it goes separated from your application, and the faculty, that decide if you get accepted, does not have access to it (at least in theory). I don't know if they can use it to turn you down, but they say you are not to be discriminated for it.

If convicted of these crimes, the student's entire career will be in jeopardy. Additionally, it will be next to impossible to achieve any sort of security clearance (especially in the US), and many jobs will not hire them due to their criminal past that comes up in a background check. It may also exclude the student from being accepted into many other undergraduate and graduate schools.
According to this source,

At LCCC, the school also looks into incidents that involve students,
  vice president of student services Judy Hay said.
“If the incident would affect the college environment, like a sex
  offense, we would absolutely look into that,” she said. “If it’s an
  alcohol offense and they’re underage, we’d look at that as well.”
The dean of students generally decides if an incident needs to be
  evaluated, she said. But the college looks for violations of student
  policy or code of conduct, not at the crime.
  ...
  Penalties students could face can range from making an apology to being expelled [again], Hay said.

Curtis, Aerin. 'Students Facing Legal Trouble May See Penalties From College | Wyomingnews.Com'. Wyomingnews.Com. Last modified 2014. Accessed September 24, 2014. http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2014/02/12/news/20local_02-12-14.txt#.VCNFKxLTQl9.

Extremely, overwhelmingly negatively if it is found out. Nobody wants such a person as part of their program and rightfully so. Most universities do not do background checks or anything, but it is going to be difficult for the person to get letters of recommendation from professors who know why he was expelled.

Most universities in the U.S. do require complete transcripts, which in this case will clearly indicate the person was expelled.

An excellent point.

Well, so far, things are not looking too well with the court case considering the abuse happened behind closed doors. Would any university accept someone who had physical abuse and sexual abuse as the reason to their expulsion? He wouldn't be the type to make an apology. On top of that, he wanted to go to law school. Wouldn't an expulsion like this make it nearly impossible?

"He wouldn't be the type to make an apology." I don't think that sounds beneficial at all. Someone who unapologetically  commits real crimes is going to have a hard time getting through life, and rightfully so.

What is Saul? Also, would the expulsion prevent him from taking the bar exam?

@Ali: "better call Saul" is a reference to the TV show "Breaking Bad".

Ohhh. Haven't watched that show yet. Thanks for filling me in.

A criminal conviction could affect eligibility for financial aid.  For example, in the US,

What other convictions might affect my aid?
If you have been convicted of a forcible or nonforcible sexual offense, and you are subject to an involuntary civil commitment upon completion of a period of incarceration for that offense, you cannot receive a Federal Pell Grant.

How would the expulsion affect him if he tried to apply to law school?

You are thinking about the wrong thing. Think about: How would his non-expulsion have affected your grades and ability to continue your career and life as a free and happy person when one of the times which really decide who you will be would have been deeply spoiled by somebody abusing you?
The academic programs which i know would not consider something like this if he was not convicted of a crime, so if he learned his lessen and behaves well, it should not be terrible for him.

authors: Vladimir F Героям слава


text:
How to deal with an academic 'stalker'?
Several years ago, my colleagues and I attempted to get a small paper published, it was rejected and we ran out of time - and as it was a 'side-project' type of paper, we left it at that.  We thought that was the end of it - this was not the case.
One of the reviewers who made themselves known to us wrote some pretty terse messages to us about his disagreement with what was a relatively minor point.  We graciously took his feedback as he is an established (published) researcher in that field. We moved on to different fields - which this reviewer has no published work in.
What has been happening since is that he will write an email questioning every single paper that I get published, not deliberately being insulting - but not offering anything constructive nor asking for clarification of the content etc.  He has admitted that what I research is beyond his area of expertise - examples of his questions are (remember, these papers are collaborative and peer reviewed):
"Are you sure you know how to use (equipment)?" - when the paper stated a previously published (by a separate author) protocol has been followed.
"Are you sure you did enough trials?" - this would be fine as criticism, except the next email stated "That many trials seems like overkill" referring to the same paper.
One particularly unhelpful comment from him was "Did you actually pass high school English?"
Criticism is fine, and is sought for any and all work that we do, but when the statements do not offer anything substantial, are contradictory or just rude - this is not criticism, it is unhelpful noise -especially when it is posted publicly where we display links to the work (he deletes his comments soon after most of the time)
How do I deal with this persistent 'academic stalking' while at the same time, not make a 'fuss'?

Is he in a position to damage your career?

@gerrit, I am in 2 minds about that question - in one respect, he is not affiliated with where I am based for the research; but on the other hand, he is an established academic that others may listen to.  So far, he is just a persistent 'follower' (so to speak).

Does he write emails to you? Why can't you simply blacklist him?

@DmitrySavostyanov he also comments on where I post links to my papers

I am curious whether this persistent critic acts this way to other authors, or if he has truly singled you out. (In other words, is he a stalker or merely an equal-opportunity jerk?) Regardless, this behavior certainly seems annoying, and I'm sorry that you have had to deal with it.

Can you elaborate more on what these emails say?  From what you've written, it's conceivable that this person has genuine concerns about your work and wants to let you know, but can't be "constructive" because he doesn't know how to fix them.  Unless there are more details you haven't shared, calling this "stalking" seems way overblown: it's simply criticism, and when you share ideas you invite others to criticize them.  That's how research works.

Yes, maybe you should include an example (or an excerpt) in the spirit of @NateEldredge 's comment. That will go a long way in improving the post.

@Omen you can put his established academic credentials into question if you speak up about his behavior. but keep an eye on what @NateEldredge says

@NateEldredge I would classify someone outside my field that choose to stay abreast of my publications and continuously criticize them as a stalker. A one time event is criticism, adding an author who you don't like that is outside your field to your "new records alert" seems like stalking to me.

@NateEldredge and others - elaboration of some of the comments he has made by email and publicly included.

@StrongBad yes, exactly, that is pretty much why I used the term 'stalker'

@postdoc4J7 I can't say for certain if he targets anyone else.

"Did you actually pass high school English?" This person is a donkey.

I suggest the following reply for next time: Go. Away.

couldn't someone just have stolen his password without him knowing about it for a long time?

@user13267 very unlikely, as mentioned, he has also commented publicly

A general strategy you can try here is "respond to amateurism with professionalism".  Even if it looks like he's being unreasonable (as it currently seems to you that he is), just suspend disbelief, and, in a completely non-confrontational manner, engage his questions as if they were serious:

I always appreciate constructive criticism [true statement!  you don't
  have to say that his was constructive, let him think what he
  wants...maybe he actually did think it was].  I didn't quite
  understand what led you to wonder whether I did enough testing of X.
  Did you see something in the results that made you suspect this
  specifically?  Just want to make sure I'm not missing anything.
Thanks for your input!

Treat it exactly as if it were a sincere attempt to help, that you had a question about.  It's possible (though I'm thinking you think it unlikely) that he really is sincere and has something to offer you.  If so, wonderful!  You get useful feedback from someone smart!
If he doesn't actually have a real question, this technique may make that obvious in a relatively non-confrontational way.  Part of the value of it is that you are not simply being the victim of stalker-y behavior, but professionally and politely holding your ground.  It is to be hoped that this will lessen the feeling of exasperation that would otherwise normally accompany this kind of childish bullying, if that is indeed what it turns out to be.
There are very intelligent and successful people in academia who are nevertheless  woefully underdeveloped emotionally; one way this will be manifest is in the need to tear down other people who seem to be having success, or demonstrating skill, or garnering attention comparable to their own. This can catch one off guard when it's coming from a successful and respected person, because you would think that their success would be all they need to feel good about themselves.  That, alas, does not turn out to be true.  If it's a chronic emotional problem, you are unlikely to get him to change his behavior; hence the advice to concentrate specifically on blunting his ability to make his problem your problem.
If the cerebral approach doesn't work or becomes too time consuming, you can always set up a filter to send email from that address straight to trash....
Escalation (adding this section after your clarified and expanded examples indicate that mere polite discussion may not work here)

[Fuss level: zero] Gather evidence.  You don't have to do anything with it yet.  Later steps I will describe will talk about possible uses.  It's just good to have in case you ever get into a he said/she said situation and need to be able to back yourself up.
Note that there is already a "fuss", to some extent.  Not your doing.  You can't choose to have this situation be "fussless", because the behavior is happening in public.  The question is to what extent you wish to participate in the fuss.
[Fuss level: low] A body of evidence might be useful for you to have handy if you wanted to petition a site administrator to block him from contributing comments.  The sites hosting your research results and facilitating discussion don't want their work compromised by trolls.
[Fuss level: medium] Does he work at an institution with a published policy regarding academic ethics?  Spuriously calling into question the validity of your results seems like it would violate ethical standards.  It might be enough for you to obtain a copy of the institution's standards, highlight the part that you consider him to be violating, and send that information to him, asking for him to comment on whether he agrees his behavior violates those standards.
[Fuss level: high] Same as 4, but with more fuss.  Contact the institution.  Ask to speak to someone about the fact that you feel that one of their employees is violating academic ethics.  Do they have a published policy?  Can they send you a copy?  Can you send them some redacted examples and have them confirm that they would consider that in violation?  You would like to resolve the matter with the individual privately if possible, but you want to be sure that you are interpreting their standards correctly.  Then, email the stalker and tell them that you've been in contact with the ethics office, not having mentioned any names of course, we can resolve this between ourselves, can we not?, and they agreed that the behavior is in violation of standards.  Would he be willing to simply stop commenting on your work altogether in the future?  It seems it would be better for both of you if he did.  You don't have to threaten exposure--you should be careful not to threaten, actually (to avoid any possibility that you could be charged with blackmail or whatever)--just state facts.
[Fuss level: nuclear]  Put all the evidence on the web, unredacted, and send a copy to his boss, his wife, and his students.  Let them know you really hate to bother them, but you need to ask them if they can contact his psychiatrist because he apparently needs his meds adjusted.  (<-- not a serious suggestion, but it was cathartic to type!)

Serenity
Reflecting on others' answers and comments, I feel that one more section should be added here, because there are practical things you can do to help the situation, from your side only, with zero direct interaction.  Although I would still gather evidence in any case (since it might be of value later should a dispute come to the surface), it is possible for you to improve your experience here by improving yourself.  It's easy and natural to focus on the fact that he is the aggressor and by rights he should be changing his behavior, and to forget that, completely independent of whether he stops or not you can choose to become better at not being affected by baseless criticism.
Give yourself a mental picture of a small child attempting to attack an adult who calmly holds himself out of harm's way by virtue of having arms twice as long as his attacker.  Your stalker has mastered the art of playing the flailing child--you can grow long arms.
Mentally rearranging your perspective on the whole situation can help.  You can say "I am going to end up better for this by learning the valuable skill of ignoring trolls.  Think what I would have had to pay a trainer for this, and he's providing me all this learning experience for free."  It is, after all, entirely possible that you are going to run into other situations in life where the ability to be calm in the face of baseless or childish criticism helps you out immensely, and this is an opportunity to learn that skill in a relatively risk-free environment (as the stalker really has no actual power over you in this situation).
In short, you have, effectively, been focusing on the question "How can I get him to stop this behavior, without making a fuss?"  But you can get an excellent result by instead asking the question "How can I get this behavior to stop bothering me?".  The second question can be pretty much entirely in your own hands, and the things you do to work on it will help you in other aspects of your life, even enabling you to help others deal with similar issues, etc.
It's more than just ignoring (which, I think it should be said, is fantastic advice if you can do it--I haven't gotten to that point yet personally)--it's a conscious decision to rise above the behavior of the other party.  Rather than "he's attacking me and I feel powerless to stop it without escalations that I am not comfortable getting into" it can be "he's attacking me, but I am using this as an opportunity to practice, and therefore develop the power, to not be affected by this behavior".  From the outside it may look the same, but mentally, this kind of approach can make all the difference.
I think this is both the best option and the hardest to execute on.  In the times when I have implemented such measures myself, I've found it to be incredibly empowering, and even in some cases ended up with unexpectedly good relationships with people that at one point had occasion (they felt, at the time, at least) to attack me, simply because I consciously decided that I didn't need to fight back.  I don't think I've faced exactly the same situation as you are here, but I believe this might help you and sincerely hope it does--best of luck.

+1 for the email filter, actually that'd be what I would do at this point.

yes, emails are filtered - however please note the edit I made (in response to comments), he also posts them publicly.

@Omen If your public links are published on your personal blog / webpage you could require registration before anyone is allowed to comment. And then blocking his account. Or even disabling comments all together and keep one channel of communication (your email) if anyone wants to contact you.

+1 for "There are very intelligent and successful people in academia who are nevertheless woefully underdeveloped emotionally".

Personally, I'd skip directly to ignoring the emails or setting up a filter and/or disabling his ability to comment. It sounds to me like engaging this person is a waste of your valuable time.

@Omen I see from your clarifications that you are already past the place where my answer would be helpful--it appears that this person is simply trolling/abusing and that you would be wasting your time attempting to engage.  My hope was that emailing him to ask for specifics would corner him into a "put up or shut up" situation.  If he is actually posting contradictory comments on the same paper (and, just let me say, wow, this is really abysmal), it seems he is without integrity and an appeal to integrity is not going to work.  I will edit my answer when time next permits.

@msouth I think your answer still has merit - there is a chance that in the course of time, I could probably start such a dialogue.

I really like the first line of this answer (+1) and some of the other things you say here, but point 6 is quite an ugly suggestion.  (I realise that you said this is not a serious suggestion, just catharsis.  Still, probably better to remove that part post-catharsis.)

Ignore the emails.
The common justification for these kind of situations is a need for attention from that person. By answering his calls you are only reinforcing this need.

I agree that it's not a good idea to give him the offended and defensive reply that he wants. But I doubt that a serious reply, as in msouth's answer, would give such encouragement.

msouth's answer about pretending your stalker is well-intentioned is good advice for a first time offender. You've probably already been doing that. This sounds borderline crazy at this point and I think ignoring is the correct course.

Your answer is probably a useful strategy to end the unwelcomed comments. But one can look at this situation as an opportunity to learn about how people can criticize our works. And by answering reasonably to his comments, one can practice his/her skills in defending his ideas and his works. So I am not a fan of cutting the conversation as soon as it gets annoying.

@VahidShirbisheh, "Did you actually pass high school English?" IMO is not annoyance - is rudeness. Since I don't see any reason for the person to be rude, I assume it derives from a need of attention, and I thus suggest to ignore it.

@JorgeLeitao: Community Managers on StackExchange are now protecting people who are way ruder than that, and instead suspending users who are their victims.

You provide your best answer in your final question:
"How do I deal with this persistent 'academic stalking' while at the same time, not make a 'fuss'?"  Don't deal with him and don't make a fuss.  You might be interested in the following 2 links:
Troll (Internet). (2014, September 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:37, September 28, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Troll_(Internet)&oldid=627020408
Hoy, A. (2014). slash7 with Amy Hoy » Blog Archive » Help Vampires: A Spotter’s Guide. Slash7.com. Retrieved 28 September 2014, from http://slash7.com/2006/12/22/vampires/
Don't waste your time with him.

I also think that this is not so much an academic problem but a personality problem. I had a similar colleague - just about any way to react that you would deem reasonable was ignored, ridiculed or similar. If I was right, it was ignored.
Try the good, reasonable approaches given here, and if they fail, ignore him. You do not argue with a drunk on the street?!

First off, if its only been going on for a while and nobody takes it seriously, then ignore him and he'll eventually find someone else to antagonize.
Otherwise...
Academic bullying is (sadly) somewhat common in certain fields with considerable popular political influence such as geopolitics, international security, international relations, race relations, climatology, certain forms of economics, etc. Much academic ink is spilt over the color of the bike shed as opposed to the location of it or whether it should even house bikes instead of boats, much less whether or not it should exist. Question anything but the (meaningless) paintjob and risk reputation assassination.
In the case where it is really just a single person who is negatively obsessed with your work you can ignore the person. Invalidating their negative responses is as easy as attacking their credibility in your current area, which appears simple in your case.
In the case where it is not just a single person, or that the detractor is a single person but their attacks resonate with a part of the society aggregated around your field... you have a different problem. In this case you can choose to stand your ground or you can work to mend the situation by changing your stance.
Changing your stance is, of course, totally dishonest, so don't do this unless you are actually playing the "get tenure" game and not the "increase human knowledge" game -- in which case its par for the course in many fields.
If you sincerely feel you have a well supported stance in the field that gained you the ire of this detractor who is negatively influencing the perceptions of those in your current field of study (and if you didn't you wouldn't have gone to the trouble of publishing in the first place, I assume), the only decent defense is a solid offense. This is a bit like a thesis defense, but with a large delay in ping-pong times. If your career is threatened by the problem it is worth it to decompose the argument that got you in trouble, and write an exposition on each point. Use those as point references for those in your current field who are not as well informed about the subject that originally got you into hot water. If you build a solid base of argument you can influence the naysayer, but understand this requires a disproportionate amount of work: calling something into question (especially by a subtle ad hominem attack) is much easier than defending a work that has been "cast into doubt" in the minds of those who haven't taken the time or interest to read it.
Ultimately, my point is that this is a political problem, and sadly this sort of problem has overridden what should be the fundamentals of genuine academics since the beginning of time. If you will win it by argument it will have to be an overwhelming one which consumes you in its defense, at least for a time. The alternatives are to either sacrifice your intellectual integrity or play dirty -- both of which are not helpful to humankind, which sort of goes against the whole point of being a true academic (as opposed to the tenure-chasing variety).
[I now wait for the avalanche of angry comments...]