I feel your pain. I'm working with a physics PhD who's now doing software development and he's the same. Sloppy desk, sloppy code, sloppy abstractions. He also

I feel your pain. I'm working with a physics PhD who's now doing software development and he's the same. Sloppy desk, sloppy code, sloppy abstractions. He also has the habit of talking over me and is not at all interested in my input, always plowing on in the wrong direction. Unfortunately, I work in an academic setting and that seems to give someone with a qualification in an unrelated subject more authority. I feel a little powerless to influence the way we do things. I've made peace with the fact that this guy is never going to change, but will eventually move on to something else.