Personally, as a phd candidate in STEM I think this is awesome. I do not care that he “skipped steps” in getting a PhD. His contribution to the body of scientific knowledge was deserving of a doctorate as determined by experts in the field, no? Who cares if you publish 3+ papers if each of those never got cited more than 10 times in 10 years and they never had any real scientific impact? I know PhDs who simply went through the motions at some of the best doctoral STEM programs in the US and never made a real scientific contribution despite checking off all the boxes.
I guess determining if he “deserves” a PhD depends on what you think a PhD is for. If it’s for checking off boxes, sitting in a room for N years, publishing K papers, taking M number of classes etc, then yes, he doesn’t deserve it. If you think it’s about learning how to be an independent researcher and making significant scientific contributions, it seems to me like he’s done quite a bit.
I guess determining if he “deserves” a PhD depends on what you think a PhD is for. If it’s for checking off boxes, sitting in a room for N years, publishing K papers, taking M number of classes etc, then yes, he doesn’t deserve it. If you think it’s about learning how to be an independent researcher and making significant scientific contributions, it seems to me like he’s done quite a bit.