> These are physics/EE PhDs.
> They are not experts in nonlinear optimization.
These are not necessarily in disagreement. You can be both!
No one that is an expert in nonlinear optimization has a PhD in... nonlinear optimizations. Typically their degree is going to be in Mathematics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or Physics. The last 2 are commonly found in any strongly mathematical subfield.
This is kinda like saying a physicist can't program or is terrible. Maybe they can, maybe they can't. My senior undergrad CS students are worse programmers than most graduate physicists I've seen. One of the best programmers I know has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and works at a national lab. I asked him how it ended up like that and he said to get his PhD work done he had to do a lot of low level stuff, related to what we were doing.
I do agree with your point fwiw, I just thought if we're going to nitpick we should nitpick ;)
> No one that is an expert in nonlinear optimization has a PhD in... nonlinear optimizations. Typically their degree is going to be in Mathematics...
Lol wut. On the contrary there are absolutely zero people with a "PhD in Mathematics" and definitely very many people with PhDs whose dissertations have the words "nonlinear optimization" in them.
> there are absolutely zero people with a "PhD in Mathematics"
I'm not sure what this means. You can definitely get a degree in mathematics. Your degree is named by the department, such as the department of mathematics.[0]
On the contrary, there is absolutely zero departments of nonlinear optimization. This is actually a true fact and not an alternative one.
> whose dissertations have the words "nonlinear optimization" in them.
And which departments do these people graduate from?
You seem to be missing critical context, which is what I was responding to
>> These are physics/EE PhDs. They are not experts in nonlinear optimization.
If you want to say that nobody has a PhD in Mathematics you'll need to be consistent with your definition (contained in title of dissertation?) and apply this here as well. Though I'm not sure what a consistent definition could be because there's certainly dissertations containing the word Mathematics in both the text and title. I'd have to stretch my imagination beyond its capacity to properly interpret your intent.
> I'm not sure what this means. You can definitely get a degree in mathematics.
Are you a bot? The text is very clear - I said `PhD` not `degree`. You cannot get a `PhD in Mathematics` - the title of the PhD is never ever (ever) `PhD in Mathematics` (or `Physics` or `Electrical Engineering` or `Computer Science`). In fact it's literally only ever `Doctor of Philosophy` that gets listed on the award. The department is also listed on the award as `awarded by X department` but it matters about as much as the football team of the school. The only thing that matters is the title of the dissertation. That's how you get people in physics departments doing dissertations that are pure math and vice-versa.
If you still don't understand what I'm saying I'd be happy to take a pic of my PhD certificate and send it to you.
>On the contrary, there is absolutely zero departments of nonlinear optimization. This is actually a true fact and not an alternative one.
I stand corrected! But also I thought I was being clear that we were talking about universities. I'm not familiar with the Vietnam Academy of Sciences and Technology, but it looks to be a research institute. Unless things work differently over there (they very may well), research institutes don't confer degrees. Also looking at their news page it looks like they are hosting the PhD defense for Nguyen Thi Tra, who is from Hanoi Pedagogical University[0]. Good luck Thi Tra!
Maybe there are actually universities with departments in optimization. But if so, they are exceedingly rare. Departments are generally not very specialized. But hey, some universities do weird things.
> You cannot get a `PhD in Mathematics` - the title of the PhD is never ever (ever) `PhD in Mathematics` (or `Physics` or `Electrical Engineering` or `Computer Science`).
My diploma would beg to differ. This is not mine, but mine looks strikingly similar[1]. (This was just found by a google image search)
THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN PHYSICS
They got their degree from UCI. You'll have to take up any further objections with them, not me. You should probably start by messaging the Department of Physics and Astronomy[2].
As for me, you'll have a terrible time trying to convince me that the words I read on my diploma are not real.
No one that is an expert in nonlinear optimization has a PhD in... nonlinear optimizations. Typically their degree is going to be in Mathematics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or Physics. The last 2 are commonly found in any strongly mathematical subfield.
This is kinda like saying a physicist can't program or is terrible. Maybe they can, maybe they can't. My senior undergrad CS students are worse programmers than most graduate physicists I've seen. One of the best programmers I know has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and works at a national lab. I asked him how it ended up like that and he said to get his PhD work done he had to do a lot of low level stuff, related to what we were doing.
I do agree with your point fwiw, I just thought if we're going to nitpick we should nitpick ;)