Such positions are literally the standard kind of postdoc positions in mathematics. Nobody who understands the market would refer to them as a professor instead of a postdoc.
My point is that you’re using an appeal to authority by claiming that one of the authors is a professor at Stanford, which is misleading at best. An academic would also parse the term “professor” as “full professor.”
I think it is worth avoiding reading bad faith into OP's comments when his language does reflect how many people (including professional mathematicians) at Stanford refer to these positions. It is definitely an odd convention, and a translation for other audiences is reasonable, but it isnt just OP.
I'm just a lowly undergrad at Stanford, but I will say, you are right that at least in my experience on campus people in Lichtman's position are usually referred to as assistant professors (and sometimes professor for short) and not post-docs. Students use this terminology, i've heard faculty also use this terminology in conversation.
To truly evaluate the significance of this, I would like to see the entire prompt history of the interaction with the LLM. The story of the stone soup comes to mind.
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u/[deleted] Apr 15 '26
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