To people rushing to criticize the decision: a) He has already published major papers. It is stated in the article in the end. The article probably should make

To people rushing to criticize the decision: a) He has already published major papers. It is stated in the article in the end. The article probably should make that a bit clearer. You can also google him. b) He received acknowledgement and praise for his thesis contribution. The article states about praise from an examiner from the university of Oxford. Not my field so I can not evaluate his work, but I would be surprised from what I see if it was trivial contribution. A PhD means you know and can push the frontier and do rigorous research. Are people worried the individual skipped a few extra course credits or he skipped quals? I doubt the faculty felt he did not deserved it. And this is clearly not a one off. P.S. I think this is his scholar profile. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=baVVmaoAAAAJ&hl=el&oi=sra https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=baVVmaoAAAAJ&hl=el...