SELF CITATION LETTER Volume 1, Issue 2
The Truth about Nelson Tansu
Nelson Tansu, Member, IEEE Self Citation
Abstract— Self-citation, where an author cite his own works,
account for a significant portion of total citations in the field. Self
citation or self referencing can be a result of an author’s social
and psychological needs for personal gratification. It is used as a
tactical tool to get famous, in the struggle for visibility and
scientific authority. This paper provides a self consistent citation
analysis on a famous self-proclaimed youngest professor in the
history from Medan. The analysis reveals the author has a high
self citation, able to cite himself 10 to 40 times in a publication.
The activity of self citation is more than 50% of the number of
citations he received. This is consistent self citation.
Index Terms— Optoelectronics; Semiconductor Properties;
Semiconductor Diode Lasers; Metalorganic chemical Vapor
Deposition; Quantum Wells; III/V compound semiconductor
materials.
I. INTRODUCTION
N elson Tansu has become very popular on the web because
of the Indonesian media. Nelson Tansu proclaimed to the
Indonesian media that he is the youngest professor in the
history. Nelson Tansu has been telling lies and making false
claims to the Indonesian news, making people think he is a
genius. Hundreds of websites from Indonesia claimed that
Nelson Tansu is the genius from Indonesia.
This paper will look at all of Nelson Tansu’s claim and
showed that he’s been telling lies
II. THE YONGEST PROFESSOR
Nelson Tansu proclaimed that he is the youngest professor
in the history. The fact is Tansu just got an ASSISTANT
professor at the age of 26 years old. He is NOT even a FULL
professor yet. You can learn about different US professors
here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor
The world's youngest professor is Alia Sabur becomes a
professor at the age of 19 years recognized by Guinness World
record. (http://www.aliasabur.com/)
There are many young ASSISTANT Professor in the US
who are even younger than 26 years old.
For example:
Eric Demaine is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science
at the world famous MIT at the age of 22 years old
Manuscript received April 9, 2011. This work was supported in part by the
World Department of Self Citation under Grant BS Tansu.
N. Tansu is with the National Institute of Self Citation.
1
(http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2003/demaine-1008.html)
Eric doesn't even called himself the youngest professor.
Here are examples of real genius.
Charles Fefferman entered college at the age of 12 at the
University of Maryland, published his first academic paper at
the age of 15. He earned a Ph.D. in Mathematics from
Princeton and became a FULL professor of mathematics at the
University of Chicago by 22.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fefferman
Terence Tao born in 1975 earned his Ph.D. from Princeton
at the age of 21 and became an Assistant professor at UCLA at
the age of 21. UCLA promoted him to a FULL professor of
mathematics at the age of 24. http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tao/
Noam Elkies become a FULL professor in Mathematics at
the age of 26 at Harvard:
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Elkies)
Dr. Tathagat Avtar Tulsi, from India, becomes an assistant
professor at the Indian Institute of Technology at Powai in
Bombay at the age of 22.
http://www.allindianewssite.com/7793/tulsi-the-youngest-
professor-of-iit-bombay-at-22
There are so many real genius in the world, read here, and
Tansu is not one of them
There is a website listing the Young Exceptionally Gifted
Students, Read here Tansu is not one of them
http://yegs.org/yegs-hall-of-fame-main-page/
Here is a list if child prodigies, the real genius, Tansu is not
one of them
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_child_prodigies
Meanwhile Nelson Tansu only became an ASSISTANT
professor at the age of 26 years. Assistant professor is a
position generally after receiving PhD.And now he is only just
an ASSOCIATE professor at the age of 33 years old.
He is NOT even a FULL professor.
In the US, there are so many young professors, after getting
a PhD one can become an assistant professor.
III. THE 300 CANDIDATES
Tansu also boasted that he managed to get the assistant
professor after eliminating 300 candidates.
Can you belive there are 300 candidates for a specialized
job in Electrical and Computer Engineering? How many days
SELF CITATION LETTER Volume 1, Issue 2
it will take to interview 300 candidates? More than 3 months!!
Unless all of the candidates are idiots??
IV. LEHIGH UNIVERSITY
Tansu claims that Lehigh University of the world top
University.
This is a false claim, Not True. Lehigh is only ranked 500 in
the world
http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-
university-rankings/2010
Meanwhile other Universities from Asia are ranked in the
top 50:
University of Hong Kong is ranked 23
Tokyo University is ranked 24
Kyoto University is ranked 25
National University of Singapore is ranked 31
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is
ranked 40
Peking University is ranked 47
Osaka University is ranked 49
Seoul National University is ranked 50
How can you call Lehigh A Top University when it is
ranked 500 below many Asian universities?
V. TANSU BACK TO JAPAN
Tansu also claims that many universities in Japan aksed
Nelson Tansu to return home to teach.
A big Lie. As shown above 3 of Japan's universities are
ranked top 50 in the world. Why do they want to hire someone
with ranked 500 below japan?
VI. THE SALARY
Tansu said his Salary is over $10,000 per month. Not True.
The average Assistant Professor Salary is $58,000 per year
All salary of US professor is published
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professors_in_the_United_Stat
es#Salary
http://www.aaup.org/NR/rdonlyres/C63FA6B1-DC6E-
49E3-9C07-51D5E5EE887E/0/Table4.pdf
VII. PUBLICATIONS & CITATIONS
Tansu claims he has published more than 200 articles
Most articles are duplicate from conference proceedings and
later published as a journal paper doubling the number. Tansu
never write any paper anymore. Now he is only listed as last
authors in all papers.
2
Tansu claims he has more than 1000 citations.
Most of the citations are self citations. Many research has
shown Tansu manipulate citation.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/52567419/Consistentselfcitation
NelsonTansu
VIII. INDONESIAN GRADUATE
Tansu in an Interview for Lehigh University said that only
10% of Indonesian graduated High School and 1% graduated
in University.
This is an understatement by a professor who don't know
about Indonesia saying that the 230 million Indonesian people
are stupid. The real estimate is; the number of university
students in Indonesia is around 23% of the population. The
current number of university students are around 4.8 million
(already 2% of the population). Nelson Tansu who called
himself genius, but cannot get a simple number right.
IX. THE PASSION
Tansu also claimed in the same interview that his passion is
teaching and will do it even without getting paid.
If this is true, why Tansu don't teach in Indonesia for free?
Do a bit of service to your country.
X. EVIDENCE OF SELF CITATIONS
Here are another Self Consistent Citation Analysis on
Nelson Tansu recent papers published in 2011. This is another
consistent proof of Self citations:
Zhang, J., Zhao, H., Tansu, N. 2011. Gain characteristics of
deep UV AlGaN quantum wells lasers. Proceedings of SPIE -
The International Society for Optical Engineering 7953, art.
no. 79530H
This paper has 27 References to Tansu
Tansu, N., Zhao, H., Zhang, J., Liu, G., Li, X.-H., Ee, Y.-K.,
Song, R., (...), Huang, G.S. 2011. Novel approaches for high-
efficiency InGaN quantum wells light-emitting diodes: Device
physics and epitaxy engineering Proceedings of SPIE - The
International Society for Optical Engineering 7954, art. no.
795418
This paper has 40 References to Tansu
Li, X.-H., Ee, Y.-K., Song, R., Tansu, N. 2011.
Enhancement of light extraction efficiency of InGaN quantum
wells light-emitting diodes using TiO2 microsphere arrays.
Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical
Engineering 7954, art. no. 79540U
This paper has 27 References to Tansu
SELF CITATION LETTER Volume 1, Issue 2
Zhang, J., Tong, H., Liu, G., Herbsommer, J.A., Huang,
G.S., Tansu, N. 2011. Characterizations of Seebeck
coefficients and thermoelectric figures of merit for AlInN
alloys with various In-contents. Journal of Applied Physics
109 (5), art. no. 053706
This paper has 17 References to Tansu
Wow.. Tansu loves himself so much that he cite himself 20
to 40 times in a paper! He is the world's youngest self citation
professor in the history.
The following papers show Tansu activities in self
consistent citation
Ee Y.-K., Kumnorkaew P., Arif R.A., Tong H., Zhao H.,
Gilchrist J.F., Tansu N. Optimization of light extraction
efficiency of III-nitride LEDs with self-assembled colloidal-
based microlenses. 2009, IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in
Quantum Electronics,
This paper has 18 self referencing to Tansu
And this paper is cited by Tansu 16 times
Zhao H., Arif R.A., Ee Y.-K., Tansu N.
Optical gain analysis of strain-compensated InGaN-AlGaN
quantum well active regions for lasers emitting at 420-500 nm
2008, Optical and Quantum Electronics, (5-6) 301-306
This paper has 18 self referencing to Tansu
And this paper is cited by Tansu 15 times.
XI. EVIDENCE OF HIGH SELF CITATION
• Tansu, N., Zhao, H., Zhang, J., et al 2011. Proceedings of
SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
7954, art. no. 795418. This publication has 40 self
referencing.
• Li, X.-H., Tong, H., Zhao, H., Tansu, N. 2010 .
Proceedings of SPIE -The International Society for Optical
Engineering 7597, art. no.75970H. This publication has 23
self referencing.
• Tong, H., Zhang, J., Zhao, H., Liu, G., Handara, V.A.,
Herbsommer, J.A., Tansu, N. 2010 Proceedings of
SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
7602, art. no. 76020U. This publication has 19 self
referencing.
• Zhao, H., Liu, G., Tansu, N. Applied Physics Letters 97
(13), art. no. 131114. This publication has 16 self referencing.
The examples show that Tansu in total has 10-40 self
referencing in a publication. Each publication reference
himself up to 40 times. This is an excessive self referencing.
XII. CONCLUSION
Nelson Tansu is not the youngest professor in the history.
He just make up all this lies to the Indonesian people.
3
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge helpful technical
discussions with Prof. Tansu regarding the calculation and
analysis of self citation. The author declares no conflict of
interest with the subject of this paper.
REFERENCES
[1] Tansu N. 2011. Self Consistent Citation Analysis of Self Citation
Letters 1(1):1-3.
[2] Tansu N. 2011. Self Consistent Citation of Tansu Group. Self Citation
Letters 1(3):1-3.
[3] Tansu, N., Zhao, H., Zhang, J., et al 2011. Proceedings of SPIE - The
International Society for Optical Engineering 7954, art. no. 795418.
[4] Li, X.-H., Tong, H., Zhao, H., Tansu, N. 2010 . Proceedings of SPIE -
The International Society for Optical Engineering 7597, art. no.75970H.
Nelson Tansu (born in Medan, Sumatera Utara,
20th of October 1977; age 33 years old) is the world
self-proclaimed youngest professor in history. Nelson
Tansu. He is a self-proclaimed expert and genius in
nanotechnology and optoelectronic from Indonesia
who has become a tenure-tracked Assistant Professor
in the University of Lehigh when he was 25 years
old. Tansu has eliminated more than 300 doctors to
get the position since July 2003. He was the self-
proclaimed youngest professors appointed in a high profile university in
America. Since his surname “Tansu” sounds Japanese, Tansu claims that
many Japanese Consulates has tried to persuade him to return to Japan to
contribute to Japan’s economy. BUT, Prof. Tansu declared that he actually
holds a Green Passport with the image of Garuda Pancasila. Tansu’s
Doctorate dissertation received the award as “The 2003 Harold A. Peterson
Best ECE Research Paper Award” winning over 300 other Doctorate
dissertations. In total, he has received 11 scientific international awards and
has published over 200 articles in international journals and more than 1200
self citations. Currently he is a visiting professor in 18 higher education and
research institutions. He is also active and often invited as a speaker in many
international events in USA, Canada, Europe and Asia.
.