Michael Thaddeus

Michael Thaddeus (born January 12, 1967) is an American mathematician and a professor of mathematics at Columbia University. He is best known for having been a whistleblower in exposing inaccurate data submitted by Columbia University to U.S. News & World Report (USNWR)'s Best Colleges Ranking to inflate the university's college ranking.

Early life and education Thaddeus was born on January 12, 1967, in New York City, and grew up in Morningside Heights. His father, Patrick, and his mother, Janice, both held doctorates from Columbia. Thaddeus was educated at St. Hilda's & St. Hugh's School before enrolling at Hunter College High School in 1980, where he graduated in 1984.

Thaddeus matriculated at Harvard University, where his sister was also a student, with the intent to study biology but switched to mathematics. His dissertation, Algebraic Geometry and the Verlinde Formula, was published in 1992 under the supervision of Simon Donaldson.

Academic career In 1994, Thaddeus was elected a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Mittag-Leffler Institute and the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute from 1994 and 1997. was published in February 2022, identifying discrepancies such as shrunken class sizes and the exaggeration of faculty credentials. Due to Thaddeus' analysis, Columbia later dropped from having been ranked 2nd to being ranked 18th, sparking speculation about the integrity of college rankings.

Selected publications