George Gollin

George D. Gollin (born May 6, 1953 in New York) is an American physics professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who since 2003 also has performed the public service of fighting diploma mills, and has received significant public attention for his successes in his effort against diploma mills. This article is about the state. ... A magnet levitating above a high-temperature superconductor demonstrates the Meissner effect. ... A Corner of Main Quad The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, or simply Illinois), is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious campus in the University of Illinois system. ... A diploma mill (also known as a degree mill) is an organization that awards academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study, and without recognition by official accrediting bodies. ...

Areas of research and teaching

Gollin has worked on particle physics experiments studying muon scattering (1975–1981, intended to test the ideas of "Quantum Chromodynamics"), neutral K meson decay parameters (1980–1993, measuring things relating to "CP violation"), and electron-positron annihilation (1993–2005, measuring production and decay properties of heavy quarks). His current research focuses on technical issues associated with the design and construction of the "International Linear Collider", a very large electron-positron colliding beams facility intended to shed light on the origins of the masses of the fundamental particles. Thousands of particles explode from the collision point of two relativistic (100 GeV per nucleon) gold ions in the STAR detector of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. ... The muon (from the letter mu (μ)--used to represent it) is an elementary particle with negative electric charge and a spin of 1/2. ... Quantum chromodynamics (abbreviated as QCD) is the theory of the strong interaction (color force), a fundamental force describing the interactions of the quarks and gluons found in hadrons (such as the proton, neutron or pion). ... The neutral Kaons are symmetric and antisymmetric mixtures of the quark combinations down-antistrange and antidown-strange. ... The neutral Kaons are symmetric and antisymmetric mixtures of the quark combinations down-antistrange and antidown-strange. ... Naturally occurring electron-positron annihilation as a result of beta plus decay Feynman Diagram of Electron-Positron Annihilation Electron-positron annihilation occurs when an electron and a positron (the electrons anti-particle) collide. ... This article is about the particle. ... The International Linear Collider is a proposed linear particle accelerator. ...

His teaching has spanned the entire physics curriculum, from elementary algebra-based courses for students in the life sciences to classical electrodynamics at the graduate level. This article is about the branch of mathematics. ... Electromagnetism is the physics of the electromagnetic field: a field, encompassing all of space, composed of the electric field and the magnetic field. ...

Other public service

The University of Illinois is a public university and "land grant school"; as such, Gollin's responsibilities include faculty public service in addition to his teaching and research obligations.^[1] Since 2003, Gollin has been documenting the practices of diploma mills, businesses that sell meaningless academic degrees without providing education or assessment to/of their customers.^[2] In this capacity, he has worked with a number of state and federal agencies, including the State of Washington Office of the Attorney General, the U.S. Dept. of Education, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education.^[2][3] It was reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education that "Alan Contreras, administrator for the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization, called the professor's work 'superb'." ^[4] He has, for example, assisted with the federal investigation of the operation of the diploma mill Saint Regis University.^[5] This investigation resulted in closing down the large operation and the conviction on federal criminal charges of eight individuals who were involved.^[6][7] This does not cite its references or sources. ... Land-grant universities (also called land-grant colleges or land grant institutions) are institutions of higher education in the United States which have been designated by Congress to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890. ... Community service refers to service that a person performs for the benefit of his or her local community. ... A diploma mill (also known as a degree mill) is an organization which awards academic degrees and diplomas with little or no academic study, and without recognition by official bodies. ... The Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper that is a source of news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and administration. ... Oregon State Office of Degree Authorization is a unit of the Oregon Student Assistance Commission that authorizes schools to offer academic degrees in the U.S. state of Oregon, validates individual claims of degrees, enforces the closure of substandard or fraudulent higher education programs in the state, and enforces policy... Saint Regis University is a now-defunct diploma mill operation with several other connected institutions. ...

In 2006 he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation for a three year term. He was reelected to a second term in 2009.^[8] Also in 2009 Gollin was named a Guggenheim Fellow by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. George Gollin said of the fellowship, "I will use the term of the Fellowship to write a book about the nine-year trajectory and spectacular immolation of St. Regis, and the resulting increase in international attention to the problem of diploma mills."^[9] Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) is an association of 3,000 degree-granting colleges and universities, which also recognizes 60 institutional and programmatic accrediting organizations. ... Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded annually by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. ... The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Mr. ... Saint Regis University is a now-defunct diploma mill operation with several other connected institutions. ...

References

External links

• George Gollin's site
• Fraud U:Toppling a Bogus-Diploma Empire, Wired, Dec. 21, 2009
• Breach of Trust: Fake Diplomas Found at U.S. Army Aviation & Missile Command - WHNT, May 17, 2009, contains a George Gollin interview.