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Comment by fifnir | Hacker News Reader

Isn't MD for..like.. medical doctors ?

If he's an MD but without a medical degree (which I guess is the case), then what's the difference betweeen MD, PHD or 'professor' ??

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If you inspect [0], you'll find that his MD was, in fact, in medicine. What came before that, though, was a PhD in applied math from Caltech, and that immediately after receiving his MD he became chair of Clarkson University's Math and Computer Science department.

Mentioning his MD is a distraction and, as the previous poster commented, suggests that he's something of an amateur. This is very far from the case.

[0] http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tf227/

So this goes off on a tangent but I feel it relates to noncentrality [0]. Fokas has a PhD in maths. Being an MD or having gotten an MD 40 years ago is clearly entirely non-central to his career. Calling him Mathematician-MD seems like it is meant to make him seem a lesser mathematician, e.g. by insinuating that this is just something he does part time, and that he can hence be taken less seriously.

I don't know what the poster meant by suggesting 'Mathematician-MD', but it reads weirdly to me for that reason. It's highlighting an attribute of a person that is entirely unrelated to his career or this article. Why if not to denigrate him? The title should be changed to neutrally reflect his position.

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yCWPkLi8wJvewPbEp/the-noncen...

I actually believe the intent is the opposite.

I think the PR people are just trying to sell Fokas as a polymath genius. "Look, he is not only a mathematician but also an MD, wow!"

Thank you, I had not considered that. I think researchers or a HN audience may perceive this differently than the average reader.

FWIW: my initial instinctive reaction to the MD part was most definitely negative.

An MD is a medical degree. It's possible to have an MD but not practice medicine professionally in the same way someone can earn a law degree (a JD) but choose to not be a practicing lawyer. "Professor" is a academic title for people at a university or advanced teaching institution. Most professors do have terminal degrees in their respective fields like PhDs, MDs, or JDs, so you could also call a Professor with a PhD "Dr. X" instead of "Prof. X". But, "Professor" is generally considered a more prestigious title since its much rarer and harder to get a professorship than get an advanced degree.

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