Exclusive: Sham scientific societies are misleading star researchers
Illustration: DAQ
Julia Hirschberg thought that she had reason to celebrate. In July, she had been elected to become a member of the European Academy of Engineering (EAE), an organization billed on its website as the “premier institution representing the highest professional distinction in engineering” with 35 Nobel laureates among its more than 400 elected members.
The accolade arrived just days after another unexpected honour: election to the Austrian Academy of Engineering. And in 2025, she had been elected to the National Academy of Artificial Intelligence (NAAI).
Securing three prestigious international honours in such quick succession is a rare achievement. Hirschberg, a computer scientist at Columbia University in New York City, was thrilled. Congratulatory notes flooded in from colleagues after Columbia published a public announcement about her accomplishments. “I was really excited,” she says. “I’ve never had anything that quick happen ever.”
The good news continued. Within a couple of weeks, Michael Chu, who identified himself as the EAE’s secretariat, told Hirschberg that the organization was electing a rotating chairperson, and he wanted to nominate her for the position, for which she’d be compensated US$2,000 per year.
And that’s when things started to get weird. When Hirschberg checked the EAE’s website, her name was already prominently displayed atop the leadership masthead. But she had never agreed to take the post; she also had never been asked for references, nor had she attended a single meeting. In truth, she hadn’t even heard of any of these organizations. (In a written response to Nature, Chu said that he had “inferred a preliminary consent” on the basis of correspondence with Hirschberg. In this correspondence, which Nature reviewed, Hirschberg replied to Chu’s invitation by inquiring about the responsibilities of the job, but never said that she accepted the position.)
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