The Ubiquitous Alireza Heidari at the Fake California South University

Alireza Heidari of California South University is a very busy academic -- so accomplished in such a short time that one might question whether he is a real person. The university website describes "Prof. Dr. Alireza Heidari, Ph.D., D.Sc." as

a Full Distinguished Professor and Academic Tenure of Chemistry at California South University (CSU), Irvine, California, USA. He has got his Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees from California South University (CSU), Irvine, California, USA.

This biographical note strains credulity (and continues to butcher English), bragging that

Syne, he has been awarded more than one thousand reputed international awards, prizes, scholarships and honors. Heretofore, he has multiple editorial duties in many reputed international and peer–reviewed journals, books and publishers. Hitherward, he is a member of more than four hundreds reputed international academic–scientific–research institutes around the world."

"Reputed peer-reviewed journals" is an apt phrase. This eminent Cal South graduate is on the editorial boards of journals from such flaky, deceptive, or predatory publishers as OMICS (which downgrades him to "a Postdoctoral Research Fellow," albeit with "double postdocs"), Allied Academies, ReDelve, Scitechnol, and Peertechz (where he is an editor-in-chief).

I had never heard of the university before, but it has an amazing website. There, we learn that "[t]he university ranks among the top five universities in the United States and among the top public research universities worldwide." The Reputation page concludes with the forthright admission that "The university has been the subject of several recent scandals. In 2011, the school’s dean of medicine resigned after plagiarizing much of his graduation address. In 2012, the University’s Psychiatry department chair was placed on leave before officially beginning his duties after allegations emerged of an inappropriate sexual relationship with a patient."

Although these unfortunate events might place CSU among the top five universities -- for recent scandals -- the school does not even exist. It is a website that sells diplomas (with higher prices for higher GPAs).