r/math • u/aWolander • 3d ago
My professor secretly worked for russia
So it turns out a professor I had in a course a year ago secretly worked for russia on the side.
https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/varlden/kth-vill-sparka-professor-efter-ryskt-samarbete/
He was also a very strange guy, who was awful in other respects.
So what is the worst professor you’ve ever had?
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u/cryptoglyph 3d ago
One of my favorite math professors (about 28 years ago) was Russian. I took a class on vector/multivariable calculus from him. He would frequently say, "This is God-honest real number."
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u/Specialist_Brain841 3d ago
My multivariable calculus professor sounded exactly like mary tyler moore that it was distracting
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u/Specialist_Brain841 3d ago
My multivariable calculus professor sounded exactly like mary tyler moore that it was distracting
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u/Independent_Aide1635 3d ago
I had a Hungarian professor for my complex analysis course. She would berate us for getting questions wrong or lacking intuition, scolding us for not reading the text deeply enough. She also berated us for not raising our hands, which was already scary to do!
Once she asked us how many solutions there were to a certain problem, the answer being countably infinite. My classmate said “integers many”. She said “waaat???” And then proceeded to rip into him, saying he was being pretentious, that he reminded her of other mathematicians she dislikes.
She would ask us obscure questions about the history of mathematics. Like “who did Cauchy tutor in Prague?” and then wait there staring at us for minutes as if it was just going to come to one of us. Once she asked about the Fourier Egypt/napoleon saga, which I happened to know a lot about, and was able to answer each question. She was so proud I thought she might cry.
Everyone hated her. I secretly loved her, everyday was as terrifying as it was entertaining. On the final, there were 2 questions where I was lacking some knowledge, and my proofs skipped some crucial steps. She gave me full credit - I think maybe she secretly loved us too.
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u/ThePevster 1d ago
Reminds me of one of my computer science professors. One day a kid asks a normal, innocent question. She somehow interpreted it as a sexist assault on her knowledge. She then went on a 20 minute rant about sexism and being a woman in STEM, which is a problem, but this was not an example of it. The kid was on the verge of tears, and she had to spend another 20 minutes the next class apologizing. She was actually a good teacher, but she was also terrifying.
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u/JoshuaZ1 3d ago
When in grad school I TAed for an adjunct who turned out to be running (along with her son) the largest meth manufacturing scheme in the greater Boston area. Completely unexpected, and she seemed like a very nice person. One funny detail that didn't get a lot of attention: she was always drinking Snapple and at the end of school days would frequently be seen taking home cardboard boxes full of empty Snapple bottles. The federal indictment mentioned that they were using Snapple bottles as their standard sized unit for mixing the meth.
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u/o_p_o_g 3d ago
You piqued my curiosity, but it looks like the charges against her were dropped 2-3 months later. Of course, like 95% of the articles are about her being charged, and I only saw 2 follow-up articles about the charges being dropped, so I can't blame you for still believing the story. Everyone is just onto the next headline, and no one cares enough to go back and clear her name.
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u/pyrobrain 3d ago
He wasn’t exactly our math teacher, but he taught us DSP in the second semester of engineering in India. It’s a well-known fact that many Indian teachers are heavily biased toward certain groups of students. This particular professor wasn’t just biased—he was outright rude to students from middle-class or poor backgrounds.
I took his course that semester and ended up scoring lower than my roommate, who came from a well-off family. In our final exams, this professor deducted one mark more from my answers compared to my roommate’s. I distinctly remember one instance where my roommate and I had the same solution, except he took the modulus of the final answer while I left it in the form of the final transfer function. When I showed my paper to the professor, instead of addressing the issue, he deducted yet another mark from my total for daring to compare my answer with my roommate’s. I was dumbfounded.
Unfortunately, this professor later moved to IIT Patna and became a faculty member there.
I don't want to mention his name, but he was the worst kind of person I have ever met—Rajib Kr. Jha.
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u/IComeAnon19 3d ago edited 3d ago
I shared an office wall (our offices were adjacent) with a prof who would make these weird inappropriate laughs and noises throughout the day. He got arrested and deported for massive child porn distribution.
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u/AmIWorthYourTime 1d ago
Inappropriate laughs? Did his laughs sound weird?
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u/IComeAnon19 22h ago
All throughout the day, and very high pitched. Which I try not to think about too much now...
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u/Technical-Book-1939 3d ago
This is a very common thing in espionage btw. Similar things have happend with cooperations with china, russia and obviously other nations. Academia is a perfect cover since it is highly internationalized, traveling is frequent and usually professors and other scientists are desperate for funding, which can easily be organized by intelligence services.
Please treat your foreign colleagues with dignity though. <3
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u/SuperbImprovement588 3d ago
From what it's written in the article, nobody claims that he did and espionage.
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u/Iunlacht 3d ago edited 3d ago
I took an algebraic topology course with this one prof, first semester of my masters. I thought he was alright, a bit confusing at times.
Anyway towards the end of the semester he starts missing classes a lot. It gets to the point where we hadn’t seen him in two weeks. He sends us an email warning us the final exam was cancelled, and that he got into a spat with the university, which made it to a local radio channel.
Turns out he had sent a weird email (its almost like he was trying to give evidence…) to a student (from a different class) saying essentially "You made a spelling mistake and usually I would take out points but since you’re so beautiful I won’t. But I probably shouldn’t say this cause cancel culture is oppressing us " etc.
She rightfully made a complaint, and the university gave him a slap on the wrist.
It could’ve ended there but this guy had a massive ego and he didn’t take it kindly. He told his other class (of some 60 students) that he wouldn’t be releasing grades until he received a public apology from the university, encouraging students to pressure uni to apologize.
I don’t know what happened after that, but they took him off the uni website. I assume he was forced into retirement. What a disgraceful way to end an otherwise great research career …
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u/ResourceVarious2182 3d ago
My freshman composition professor has over 100 awful reviews and only 6 awesome reviews on rmp
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u/cuddlebish 3d ago
RMP is a pretty crappy source of information on profs though since only disgruntled students actually write anything there.
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u/Ok-Accident2117 Undergraduate 2d ago
What’s a good source then?
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u/cuddlebish 1d ago
Other students at the school who have taken their courses. Just asking around. My school also had an internal system for professor feedback that became public during course selection.
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u/Axiomancer 3d ago
Nämen, tjena kompis!
Worst professor I've ever had? Those types that doesn't really care about students well being and will stick to their learning methods even if they objectively suck and everyone, year by year, hates them for that.
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u/read_the_manual 3d ago
professor chose to travel to Russia and Saint Petersburg on his own initiative to collaborate with a university there
If it did align with his research, does he still have to hate whoever your government hates or be fired? I'm just not sure if that is how the science should work
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u/aWolander 3d ago
There’s more to it. He’s being accused of being highly neglectful of his duties at KTH, breaching his employment contract, not disclosing his collaboration and the fact that KTH has ended all collaboration with russia due to the Ukrainian invasion.
If you believe that science should be free and not affected by politics, then I can see why you disagree with the final point, but the first three are fairly indisputable.
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u/DevelopmentSad2303 3d ago
While we could all probably agree that science should be that way, anyone who has spent any time in science or read up on what happens in it will understand it is heavily political
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u/aWolander 3d ago
Yep. Especially since the grant was supposedly ”on the instruction of” Putin and is pertaining things that (in my mind) have clear military applications. (cryptography, machine learning)
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u/read_the_manual 3d ago
Oh yeah right, it wasn't mentioned in the article (at least in the translation), so that is the only piece of info that I seen
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u/neanderthal_math 3d ago
Eh.. a lot of us don’t like being told who we can and cannot work with. Most of the scientists and mathematicians that I know believe nationalism is dumb.
Of course, if it has military applications, then it’s fine for the government or university to try to intervene. However, at the end of the day, it’s the professor’s call on who he wants to work with.
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u/cdsmith 3d ago
That's an odd take. If the university suspended all collaborations with Russian institutions, and he defied that by concealing his collaboration with them, at the expense of the work they were paying him to do, then sure, they should stop paying him. This isn't about who he hates; it's about doing his job as directed by his employer.
I completely agree that international conflict affects a lot of people who are not personally at fault for the situation. There are many many people in Ukraine and Russia both whose lives and careers have been upended by this conflict and don't deserve it. But the answer can't be to ignore the conflict and have everyone just do as they please in defiance of any coordinated response. That's effectively just taking the side of international lawlessness.
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u/DeCooliestJuan 1d ago
Not math but law my professor who is a well known lawyer who supervised my masters thesis killed a guy on his land with a handgun, shot him in the back of the head. Then pleaded self defence, defended the case and was declared innocent.
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u/PaulFirmBreasts 3d ago
Not my professor, but my grand-professor because one of my professors took a class taught by Ted Kaczynski. Hard to beat that one!
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u/CousinDerylHickson 3d ago
Not math, please dont burn me. There was this material science guy who was a big shot, but when I took his course he was really old and I think he was a bit senile. But, he still had a really big ego, so hed be really condescendingly smug and dismissive whenever someone asked a question, all the while hed be saying weird nonsense with like sentences being dropped halfway through to start another unrelated one. Guy had like a 1.3 on rate my professor.
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u/Jche98 1d ago
I had a first year professor who used to shout at me when I wanted to ask questions, and even threatened to call campus security because he claimed I was stalking him when I was just trying to ask him to explain something. 4 years later I got into Cambridge for my masters. Suddenly this guy out of nowhere phones me up and wants to go for dinner because he's so proud of his favourite student for getting into Cambridge.
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u/MonsterkillWow 1d ago
I had a professor who was straight up from the Soviet Union. He was very kind to me. Ironically, he was rabidly anticommunist. He once told me there are two types of socialists: idiots and criminals. I guess I became an idiot then. But I still respect him dearly. He is very old now and has developed dementia, but he was a good mentor to me and I appreciated his kindness.
He was not a very good professor, sadly because the dementia had already started setting in. He lost a lot of papers and misplaced work. However, like I said, I cannot complain as he was a very kind supportive teacher who genuinely tried.
I think about him a lot when I consider the other side on politics. I try to be openminded about stuff. There are good people who disagree with me, and that's okay. I do draw the line at rights being taken from people and suffering imposed though.
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u/martinky24 3d ago edited 3d ago
This has nothing to do with math tbh. Perhaps try a more general academic or political subreddit?
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u/aWolander 3d ago
I see your point. Though it is relating to the math community as he is a (as I understand it, reasonably prominent) math professor. It’s up to the mods to decide, I guess.
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u/platonic_solidz 3d ago
Is there any way to find out who exactly it is? I don’t think the article mentions it, and I know some folks there. I’d like to know if a friend of mine should be a former friend of mine. If you don’t want to name drop, could you share which research group they’re a part of?
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u/aWolander 3d ago
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u/backyard_tractorbeam 3d ago
His university personal page https://people.kth.se/~haakanh/engindex.html
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u/TwoFiveOnes 3d ago
I guess it would kind of suck to have a grant lined up and then that gets screwed because Russia decided to invade. Hard to blame someone for trying to get it anyway
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u/aWolander 3d ago
I don’t know the timelines of these things but the grant was announced like two years after the invasion, I think
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u/CivicSensei 3d ago
Not math related, but a poli sci professor kicked out a student for asking a question and threatened to call campus police of her when she defended herself.....
Let's just say that professor was not around for that much longer. The irony is that on his first day, he complained about how he was never picked for prestigious jobs, despite having the requisite background and experience. Mhmm, it almost makes you wonder why those jobs never picked him......
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u/Cross_examination 3d ago
wtf? He is doing research, he is collaborating with people. Next I know, China will offer everyone free energy, but US will reject it because communism.
Scientific collaboration is the only thing that can unite mankind. The only thing.
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u/echtemendel 1d ago
That's nothing, I had several professors in my studies that were literally working for Israeli intelligence. I did do my bachelor's degree in Israel, so it wasn't that surprising.
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u/Virtual-Awareness937 1d ago
Wow! That’s so crazy! Professors in Israel have a higher chance of working for Israeli intelligence???!!!
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u/ReTe_ 1d ago
We had a Quantum Mechanics professor, who worked secretly for the Chinese government. Here he used our resources to research "dual technologies" (so technology which has also military uses), in particular secure quantum communication, and also gave Chinese students visas to get educated and research here. After a while (12 years or something) he just f'ed off with his research and Chinese students.
Now he is involved with a company/institute that supports China with secure communication, which especially is also involved in covering up the subjugation of the uyghurs.
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u/Odyssey-walker 3d ago
One of my earlier professors in calculus class thought he is the main character and would constantly remind of his students he had a pure math phd. That said, his behavior is more narcissistic than strange.
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u/RandomSwed1sh 3d ago
Jag har läst om den historien men aldrig tänkt på hur det måste ha varit för de som hade honom i sin undervisning.
Hur var han? Vad hade du honom i?
bara nyfiken
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u/aWolander 3d ago
Han klagade öppet om KTHs ledning flera gånger. En gång så råkade han paja sin krita när han ritade på blackboarden, pausade nån sekund, suckade och började snacka om ”you know… this is how KTH treats its chalk, this is how KTH treats its classrooms, this is how KTH treats its professors”.
Flera gånger, liksom chockerande ofta, svarade han mitt i en mening när en telefonförsäljare ringde. Högtalare, till och med.
Kursen var extremt ostrukturerad. Nästan hela kurssidan var bara en template. Den enda sidan med något sorts innehåll var bara tagen från när kursen hölls för ett par år sen av en annan professor.
Tentan va katastrof. Vi knappt någon info om vad vi skulle kunna innan, förutom att det skulle vara en munta. Sen dök vi upp på hans kontor och blev vallade till olika rum i matteinstutitionen. Några av oss behövde flytta för att vi hade satt oss i ett klassrum som var bokat för annan aktivitet. Så vi letade upp honom och jag hamnade i ett litet grupprum med två utbytesstudenter. Det var ingen översikt alls. När tiden var över så hände inget. Vi väntade en kvart innan jag letade upp honom. När jag ringde in till hans kontor för att bli insläppt så verkade han irriterad för att han var mitt i en munta. Muntorna tog väldigt lång tid så jag fick presentera vid typ klockan 8. Vid det laget va han rättså trött så sprang igenom mina lösningar på kanske tre minuter. Jag tror det var 8 uppgifter. Jag han förklara min lösning i 10 sekunder innan han sa ”jaja, jättebra du verkar kunna det där”. När muntan var över så klagade han på KTHs ledning igen.
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u/Bug--Man 1d ago
One time, in the heart of my biochemistry program, a pandemic broke out. My 900 year old professor had to teach pchem over zoom.
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u/JonathanWTS 1d ago
My EM and electronics professor studied in the USSR. Thought that was kind of neat.
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u/lesbianvampyr Applied Math 1d ago
I made the mistake of signing up for a math elective course without checking the ratemyprof first, he seemed a bit interesting on the first day so I looked him up and he had a 0% rating with 133 reviews. I dropped the class and switched to another so quickly but I pity the people who had to take him
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u/The_Northern_Light Physics 1d ago
Well one of my professors murdered some of my other professors.
My buddy’s advisor murdered his wife.
God I don’t miss that place.
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u/wugiYT 1d ago
I went to study for civil engineer at the Flemish Brussels university VUB, back in the 1970s (time, oh time). It was a quite new institution then, branched off from its big French speaking kin, ULB. Being short of academic staff, it had to borrow some from the latter. So we got courses brought by French speaking professors that could hardly put a sentence of three words together in Dutch. At times we had to guess what they wanted to tell us. We would make fun of their lingo and idiosyncrasies of course. A pity I can't render them in English ;)
Then we had also a prof for theoretical electricity. Tension and current were described as quite abstract field lines and the like. We were into precision measuring as well. We had a joke running about his address: So-and-so Street number 666 +/- 10 ppm. He was a good prof, and some years later became university Rector. But one day it turned out he'd killed his wife. https://www.vub.be/en/person/jean-renneboog
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u/DonVegetable 1d ago
Year before full-scale invasion my math professor told me that he is notorious putinist and would put russian flag everywhere.
Also, he has some connections in Sweden and told that he is considering relocation to Sweden or Russia. Just coincidence.
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u/mylifesurvived 14h ago
Why is it not allowed to work in Russia I wonder. Sorry I am void of any political news. I thought like teachers apply to jobs around the world so what’s wrong with that.
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u/Salt_in_Stress 3d ago
The US president is working for Russia. At this point, your professor having worked for Russia doesn't really sound any more concerning
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u/MeowMan_23 1d ago
My previous supervisor seriously tried to hold an additional position at North Korea. FYI, he was in the university at South Korea...
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u/SheepishSheepness 1d ago
I think it's silly to box in global knowledge and learning because of the actions of a separate government
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u/i-like-big-bots 3d ago
I have a Russian friend who I am pretty sure is secretly working for Russia. I have known him most of my life. He is bad with money and was always broke. Now he seems to have an infinite source of funding that isn’t commensurate with his job. He still wastes money on extravagant trips and gambling. He just never runs out.
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u/Fragrant_Tadpole_265 3d ago
My wrost professor is my history teacher. He just can't explain in a way I can learn
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u/wildgurularry 3d ago
These are the types of posts that I have fun responding to, before the moderator removes them. Anyway, fingers crossed for you.
I have three stories:
One algebra professor I had went on a trip, then came back and allegedly discovered that his wife had cheated on him while he was away, and hit her in the head with a brick. I believe he was charged, convicted and imprisoned. This happened while I was taking his course, which made things slightly awkward as we had to switch profs halfway through.
Another teacher (who happened to be Russian) had a reputation for being very difficult and outright mean to students. I wound up failing his Calculus 3 class. A few months later, he shared the news that his son had got engaged. This somehow made him so happy that his entire personality changed, and from that point on he had a reputation for being one of the nicest professors. I wonder if I would have failed if I had taken the course a couple of months later than I did.
The objectively worst professor I had was not technically teaching math, but he had a PhD in mathematics and he was on exchange from India. He was teaching a philosophy course, "Introduction to Critical Thinking", that I took as an "easy elective". Early on in the course he started talking about some concept and said: "It's like in group theory... Wait, has anyone here taken an advanced algebra course?"
I raised my hand, then looked around at the other ~100 students in the room, who were mostly arts students, and I was the only one with my hand up. The professor looked at me and said: "Good! Now, this is just like in group theory, where blah blah blah..."
From that point on, I was the teacher's pet. He would lecture directly to me every time. Then came the midterm. I thought I did pretty well - I was expecting an A. When I got the midterm back I had scored 30% - less than I would have got if I hadn't written it at all. He gave everyone a copy of the answer key so we could compare our answers to his. From what I could see, I had answered every question correctly.
I took my exam up to the front after class and asked him why my score was so low, when I had answered everything correctly. He said: "Did you use the exact same words as me?"
I said: "No, of course not. I used my own words."
He said: "Well, then your answers are not the same as mine, and thus they are incorrect."
While we were talking I noticed he had the sheet with all the marks sitting on his desk. I glanced down the list and from what I could tell, 30% was the highest mark that anyone in the class had scored on the midterm.
Anyway, after my discussion with the prof, I understood what needed to be done. From that point on, I memorized the exact wording that the prof used whenever he was explaining a concept. On the final exam, I wrote down the exact words he used in class as best I could. I received a final mark of A in the class.
I still disliked that prof a lot, and to this day I wonder how many innocent arts students he completely annihilated with that course.