Talk:Joseph Felsenstein

Disclosure
I am a colleague and former postdoc of Felsenstein's. None the less, as the page has had inaccurate information for many months now, I am editing it as requested below by Felsenstein. I have cited all new material added. Mkkuhner (talk) 05:49, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

Untitled
See User_talk:Felsenst for photo copyright and permission. EdJohnston 02:13, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

When born
Sheesh, all these Unknown Year of Birth links are a pain to even look at. For whoever resolves this for my page, I wish to simply state that I was born in Presbyterian Hospital, Philadelphia (where my uncle was a resident so in those days we could get the birth free on Professional Courtesy), on 9th of May, 1942 at about noon. But they forgot to tell my father and he sweated it out in the waiting room for several more hours after that. OK, is that enough information? Or is it Original Research and thus you can't use this statement? As for date of death, you'll just have to wait. Felsenst (talk) 19:28, 15 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Now Wikipedia is showing, in the combox for this page, that it is not sure of my age. It says "(71-72)" with an annotation of "citation needed".  I am 72, as the above birthday shows.  What kind of "citation" would help Wikipedia figure that out?  Why do they keep acting like this is some big unresolved crisis?  Is this more Worrybots?  Felsenst (talk) 21:04, 19 December 2014 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia's "bots" still can't figure out how old I am despite having my correct birthday. Are computers inherently incapable of doing that much computation?  There is a citation link on my birth date.  I followed it and found myself looking at a page for the 2014 recipient of the International Prize for Biology, who is not me.  Whoever corrects such things should use this link to the page for the 2013 recipient, who is me.  It is a real citation, so will presumably keep Wikipedia's Worrybots happy.  Of course the Prize people got that birthdate from me, so the link is no more authoritative than just asking me!  Until all this is fixed the major crisis over my exact birth date and age will continue.  It is certainly amusing. Felsenst (talk) 20:15, 7 July 2015 (UTC)


 * The crisis over my age continues!  Wikipedia accepts the statement that I was born on May 9, 1942.  However, the combox gives my age vaguely (today it is listed as 73-74).  Apparently they are unable to figure out, from my (correct) birthday, what age I am.  Truly I am a Man of Mystery.  Felsenst (talk) 23:25, 2 February 2016 (UTC)


 * They even say, for my age, "citation needed". No, it doesn't need any citation.  If they accept my birth date (and it is correct) then what they bloody well need is an algorithm that can compute my age from the birth date and today's date.  Calling for a citation instead is just plain crazy. Felsenst (talk) 20:22, 12 April 2016 (UTC)


 * Now I see, poking around, that there is supposed to be a way to do this. Let me try it here.  I was born on the 9th of May, 1942, so today I should be 82 years old.  Felsenst (talk) 20:22, 12 April 2016 (UTC)


 * OK, that worked. Could someone please edit that into the combox to replace the ridiculous statement about my age that is there? Felsenst (talk) 20:22, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Horrible confession

 * "An individual covered by or significantly related to this article, Joseph Felsenstein, has edited Wikipedia as Felsenst (talk · contribs)"

Yes, I confess, it was me! Ain't I allowed to? I do refrain from editing my article (just did it once, to correct my academic affiliations). But I reserve the right to comment here on whether the article has its facts straight. I am not hiding my identity -- click on User:Felsenst to see that. Felsenst (talk) 05:13, 19 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Hello Professor F. You are allowed to edit your own article, though the safest way is to propose a change here on the Talk page and wait for someone else to do it. Obviously your article could be more complete than it is now. (We do have the space, it just needs somebody to take the time to write it). Maybe you could suggest more recent references that could be included. EdJohnston (talk) 13:02, 19 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I am glad you think it is Not So Horrible to comment here. I will use that rather than edit the article itself. I am not concerned about whether the article is or is not long enough. I am a bit annoyed by all these dramatic messages warning all of you that I am, in fact, myself. Also all the agonizing about birth dates which is totally unnecessary -- I am not aware of any controversy on the issue. Wikipedia seems to have automatic Worrybots. Felsenst (talk) 16:08, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

A major honor
Bruce Walsh has named a moth species after me, Ufeus felsensteini. This is one of two actual contributions to taxonomy associated with my name, Felsenst (talk) 19:32, 17 March 2013 (UTC)

In lesser matters, the recently-published list of the 100 most-cited papers of all time lists my 1985 bootstrap paper as number 41. Felsenst (talk) 06:00, 21 November 2014 (UTC)

Inaccuracies in the current page
I shouldn't edit the page but I can complain here about things that are wrong:


 * I was born on May 9, 1942 so I am now 71 years old. I thought I had already explained my birth date.
 * I have no middle name, never have had one. Not sure why it gives me a Chinese middle name (?), Hua, in the combox.
 * Arindam RoyChoudhury was not my Ph.D. student, his advisor was Elizabeth Thompson. I did do collaborative work with him during his Ph.D. work.

I hope someone will correct these. Felsenst (talk) 22:05, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

OK, those are fixed. By the way, three more Ph.D. students of mine are Michael Turelli, Shozo Yokoyama, and Lindsey Dubb. Felsenst (talk) 14:32, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

I just noticed that my name is misspelled under my photo in the combox. Felsenst (talk) 16:41, 6 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Fixed the spelling of Felsenstein. If we are to add names of Drs. Turelli, Yokoyama and Dubb it is best if we have an online source for that, or at least a paper reference whose name can be given. The existing students are cited to the Mathematics Genealogy Project which seems sufficient. Thanks, EdJohnston (talk) 17:15, 6 January 2015 (UTC)


 * There is a list of my students at my laboratory web site (see the Former Members web page). I also have a more comprehensive tree of academic descendants at the FlyTree, which is part of Academic Tree. (Except that Gary Churchill is incorrectly listed as my student rather than Elizabeth Thompson's). Felsenst (talk) 20:58, 6 January 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060828012149/http://www.genetics.wisc.edu/faculty/profile.php?id=102 to http://www.genetics.wisc.edu/faculty/profile.php?id=102
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Professor? or professor?
For whoever edits the page, which I am not supposed to: Someone has decided that I am a "professor" rather than a "Professor". The latter is actually a formal job title, not just a generic description. However the titles are out of date. Having retired in 2017, my current job title in the Department of Genome Sciences is Professor Emeritus. And I am also in the Department of Biology -- these are joint appointments. Since I retired, I no longer have any Adjunct appointment in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and in the Department of Statistics. Felsenst (talk) 16:11, 13 October 2020 (UTC)