I think it's time for me to clarify where this "Reza Ghadiri Project" is heading.
Direction 1. Perspectives on academic science
Three previous posts that fall under this category are: "On the Nature of the PhD Program in Science", "A formula for success in Academia" and "Publishing strategically: You got to know when to hold ‘em". Scientific research does not come out of a vacuum. It involves institutions and individuals — with choices to face, decisions to make, strategies to develop and consequences to create. With my focus mainly on natural sciences, academia and the Western world, I am interested in how science is done, how it can, cannot and possibly should be done, and why.
Direction 2. "Rate-my-PhD-or-postdoc-supervisor-dot-something"
There are review websites for nearly everything nowadays. Books, cars, companies, jobs, co-workers. There is one called RateMyProfessors.com, where professors are reviewed as lecturers by (undergraduate) students who attend their classes. So here's an idea: what about reviews of professors as laboratory heads and research group leaders — by students and postdocs they supervise?
We'll see. It would have to be anonymous, but civilized. First, I will need to get the guidelines, rules and agreements in order. Then, a section for submitting and reading PI reviews could open right here, on rezaghadiri.net. If and when this idea gets off the ground (i.e. if reviews do start to come in), it will get a website of its own.
For now, I am leaving this idea on the back burner. Before I spend any time on this, I want to know if anybody is interested or, even better, is willing to participate by writing reviews. If you are, don't just sit there, say so!
What does this have to do with Prof. Reza Ghadiri?
Not much, really. Neither does Dr. Ghadiri have anything to do with why I left the PhD program. I never said he did.
I am using my experiences in the Ghadiri lab and Prof. Reza Ghadiri himself for illustration purposes, as an informal case study. And, of course, I am using Dr. Ghadiri's fame, however small it might be compared to that of Britney Spears, to attract attention to this website. I will, however, eventually run out of stories and things to say about Reza Ghadiri. At that time, the title and the domain name of the site may change to better reflect content.
My motivation for doing all this
At this point, I would be hard-pressed to come up with anything besides that I find it all interesting. I do think it beats collecting stamps. The kinds of issues I want to raise are important in the grand scheme of things — and personally for anyone who chooses to make science part of their careers and lives. I'm not counting on changing the world overnight, single-handedly — or at all, for that matter. But I do hope to at least promote the discussion.
comments for this post
I've been a student of science for over 10 years. Most of that time I worked in academic research labs. The last and the longest time – in the laboratory of Dr. 
There aren't enough grad students and postdocs who come from an average lab for an objective (or even a good subjective) review of professors assuming that 10% of them leave feedback. You'll only get people who either hate, or love their former advisor. You depend on that person for a job for the rest of your life anyways, it's foolish to stick your neck out, even if the experience was overall a positive one.
I completely agree with you in a sense that it won't be an easy feat to pull off and get people to contribute, especially in the beginning. The issues of emotions and subjectivity (let alone deliberate misinformation) on one side and self-preservation on the other are very real indeed. The goal is to alleviate these issues to maximum possible extent, and there are ways to try and accomplish that, partly thanks to the nature of the Internet.
But if something like this worked out well and gained momentum, I think the benefits would be quite substantial. Even if less than 10% of students and postdocs participate (I think 10% is quite optimistic, actually). The only way to know what kind of a professor you are signing up to work for now is to talk to the current students and postdocs. It will always be the thing to do. But for the current lab members, the danger of "sticking your neck out" in a face-to-face conversation with a perspective student is even more serious. I've seen that reluctance to say anything specific time and time again. The perspective student has no other option but to attempt to read between the lines and decipher facial expressions.
Any information is helpful in this kind of situation. If you read or hear something, then when you visit the lab you can ask someone "Is it true that your supervisor did this and that?" That way you'll know something that the lab members might not have volunteered to tell you otherwise.
The other, less obvious, reason for doing this is to influence the student-advisor dynamics. Right now there is a lot of room for abuse and very little accountability. Tenured professors vs. students/postdocs largely dependent on their supervisors in their future careers — careers they have already invested so much time and effort into? It's just not a healthy situation. But suppose I'm a professor. Imagine also, that there is a website, well-known and accessible to anyone, where anything I do as a supervisor might happen to come up. What's more, that page will be right up there if you google my name. And I won't know who told — could be someone in my lab right now or a former lab member, a PhD student or a postdoc, or a summer student. All of a sudden, I have to think twice before acting like a total prick, don't I?
Not all professors would have stuff written about them. But every professor who thinks of doing anything morally questionable would face the risk of his/her actions being exposed. That's the beauty of a deterrent.
I just stumbled upon this site. I did my PhD at a top tier school working for a moron advisor who built her career on the backs of tenacious, smart graduate students and collaborators. I published 2 1st author papers in 4 years, one in Science. Moron advisor decided, after I graduated, that she didn't like me and wouldn't write me rec letters for a postdoc, even after telling me that she was working on them. Okay, well that sucks. We definitely had a rocky relationship, but I couldn't imagine that turn of events. I was, by the way, her very 1st Ph.D.
Long story short: by working with other connections I managed to get a reasonable postdoc, which I left after a year to take a job at a top tier school as an administrator/non-tenure track lecturer - taught some courses, helped run a graduate program, etc. That was a lot of fun, but fairly limiting in upward mobility. Did that for 4 years, and now I'm making low 6 figures working as an assistant dean at a top tier school. I'm in my early 30's. How many people in academic science are earning 6 figures in their early 30s? How many are even earning $50K?
Point is: don't give up. Struggle against the system and individuals who you see as destroying your career. Find meaningful work and kick ass at it. Forget the tenure track, there are other ways to have a great career. Including alternative academic careers, which are great IMO.
I'm quite happy with the way things have turned out. I think it would have been a horrible mistake for me to go on the TT. I stop work at 5pm and don't care about it again until 9am the next day.
Oh, and another thing: academia is a small world. Science, in general, is a small world. Try not to piss people off.
I highly disagree with "try not to piss people off". If you get pissed on by an advisor or a boss, piss right back at them - I do not wear knee pads to school or work and its always worked for me. I have seen so many friends and colleagues receive PhD's then never work in lab again because they were abused and overworked to the point where they never want to return to chemistry lab.
Hi - I stumbled upon your website after searching for a certain PI being a good boss. I have also been a victim of PI abuse. My reasoning for the bad treatment that I experienced was that the person had issues (ie: inferiority complex, he was racist, he had a small penis, etc). I have to tell you though that I wish I would have been able to use your non-existent rating system so that I could have avoided the situation that I had gone through. However, I believe that my rough experience - and I'm telling you it was really rough - has turned me into a stronger person and I won't take any BS from anybody whatsoever.
I think that instead of these rating systems there should be rules in every graduate program that prevents jerk PIs from being the way they are. It's just unacceptable right now. But if all we can do is rate the PIs and not be able to establish certain laws, I'd say make the best damn rating system available and advertise it everywhere. I bet you'll make the PIs we talk about crap in their pants. And I'd definitely contribute in helping you.