Documentation to "My Case"

July 22, 2004


Professor Teng-fong Wong, Chair
Department of Geosciences
SUNY at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY 11794


Dear Teng-fong,

In my letters written in November 2003 to my former supervisors, Professors Liebermann and Weidner, I asked them to recognize my contributions to the Department and the University by requesting a promotion for me to full Research Professor. Since they did not act, I am asking you, as the Chair of the Department of Geosciences, to do the same.

I have been a Research Associate Professor since the appointment to this position by the former President of this University, Dr. John H. Marburger, on August 10, 1989. Among my accomplishments since then I published 52 peer-reviewed articles, for a total of 70 articles (a list enclosed with the resume). This total includes 26 single-author and 10 first-author articles. I also summarized my experimental studies of phase relations carried out in over 20 years of research in a monograph: “Phase Diagrams for Geoscientists: An Atlas of the Earth’s Interior,” which was published by Springer-Verlag in 2003. This book represents the largest collection of calculated phase diagrams published so far, and has been listed as the most popular book in petrology by Amazon.com since January (printouts enclosed). I also discovered 26 new compounds, including such important deep-mantle phases as superhydrous phase B and hydrous wadsleyite (please see my Web site for details: http://www.mpi.stonybrook.edu/ResearchResults/PhaseRelationsGasparik/).

I believe that my scholarly accomplishment not only satisfy but exceed by most standards the requirements for promotion to full Research Professor. I also believe that not being promoted for 15 years despite my widely recognized research accomplishments is a stigma that may have played a role in my failure to find a salaried university position elsewhere.

Thank you for your kind consideration of this request.


Sincerely yours,



Tibor Gasparik
Research Associate Professor