Nikolay Zak
| Nikolay Zak | |
|---|---|
| Born | Russia |
| 🏫 Education | Moscow State University New Economic School |
| 💼 Occupation | Mathematician, analyst |
| Known for | Research on Jeanne Louise Calment |
| Twitter= | |
Nikolay Zak is a Russian mathematician and analyst. He is known for his research and publication of articles skeptical of the claim that Jeanne Calment of France was the oldest person in the world when she died in 1997 at age 122.
Schooling and career[edit]
Zak received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Moscow State University (MSU) in 2007 and his Master’s in Economics in 2006 from the New Economic School in Moscow.[1] He is a member of the Moscow Society of Naturalists.[1] Zak worked as an analyst for the bank of Moscow from 2007 to 2009; and as a glassblower for the chemistry department at MSU until 2019. [1]
Controversial theory advanced[edit]
Zak collaborated with RUDN assistant professor of gerontology and geriatrics, Valery Novoselov[1]to specifically look for potential fraud in Jeanne Calment's biography that recognized her as the oldest recorded person to have lived. Their skepticism was fueled by the age-of-death difference between Calment and the second-oldest known person, Sarah Knauss, making the record a statistical outlier. Calment's longevity status, however, is backed by references and is authenticated by a team of researchers.[citation needed]
Zak's hypothesis is that in 1934, Yvonne, Jeanne's only daughter born in 1898, assumed her mother's official identity at her death, and was therefore 99 years old when she died in 1997. From that starting point, Zak reviewed Calment's life, using testimonies, pictures, and other records. Zak published his first theory on the academic social media site, ResearchGate; but was later accepted for publication in January 2019 by the peer-reviewed journal Rejuvenation Research.[2] The claim attracted widespread media attention around 30 December 2018 after postings by gerontology blogger Yuri Deigin went viral.[3][4][5] The theory, however, was met with strong criticism by French demographist and gerontologist Jean-Marie Robine.[6] Robine had been on the team of analysts that had verified Calment's longevity in the 1990s. [6]
Works[edit]
In 2020, Zak co-published "A Bayesian Assessment of the Longevity of Jeanne Calment, asserting to the method using Bayes' theorem"[7]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Lifeboat Foundation Bios: Dr. Nikolay Zak". lifeboat.com. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
- ↑ Zak, Nikolay (30 January 2019). "Evidence That Jeanne Calment Died in 1934, not 1997". Rejuvenation Research. 22 (1): 3–12. doi:10.1089/rej.2018.2167. PMC 6424156. PMID 30696353.
- ↑ "Cette surprenante théorie sur l'âge de Jeanne Calment affole les réseaux sociaux" [This Surprising Theory About Jeanne Calment's Age sets Social Networks on Fire]. HuffPost (in français). 30 December 2018. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
- ↑ "La théorie qui déboulonne… Jeanne Calment" [The Theory that Debunks… Jeanne Calment]. Le Point (in français). 30 December 2018. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
- ↑ Rubetti, Morgane (1 January 2019). "Des Russes remettent en cause l'âge de Jeanne Calment, doyenne de l'humanité" [Russians Question the Age of Jeanne Calment, World's Oldest Person]. Le Figaro (in français). AFP. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 How We Know the Oldest Person Who Ever Lived Wasn’t Faking Her Age; Chen, Angela; Angela Chen@chengela; Jan 9, 2019; WebPage; quote: "...Not just her family, but the entire city of Arles would have needed to keep the conspiracy going... All of this is incredibly shaky and rests on nothing." —Jean-Marie Robine
- ↑ "A Bayesian Assessment of the Longevity of Jeanne Calment"; Zak, Nikolay and Gibbs, Philip; online article; Rejuvenation Research Magazine; Volume 23, Number 1; retrieved July 2021
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