My point is it’s funny. It’s a group of charlatans dealing with a competent person for the first time.
He's not an MIT researcher AFAIK. He's affiliated with DCI, which runs under the MIT banner. MIT actually had a favorable article in their review that DCI took issue with--but of course they were both going after a Swedish contract to create an e-money. IOTA survived the cut, which probably infuriates them even more.
One can find good cryptographers outside MIT, you know.