Stuart Rojstaczer is an American writer, musician, and
geophysicist
Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' som ...
.
He was trained as a geophysicist and was a professor at
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
before leaving academe to pursue research into
grade inflation
Grade inflation (also known as grading leniency) is the awarding of higher grades than students deserve, which yields a higher average grade given to students.
The term is also used to describe the tendency to award progressively higher academic g ...
and to write fiction and music. He performs music under the stage name Stuart Rosh with his band "the Geniuses".
Rojstaczer was born in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...
, to Polish-Jewish parents. He was educated in public and Orthodox Hasidic schools and later went on to receive degrees from the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...
,
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...
, and
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
. He ascended to a professorship at
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
, where he researched hydrology, ecology, geophysics, and geology. He published in journals such as Science, Nature, and others.
As he departed from academe, he published ''Gone for Good'' (Oxford University Press), in which he describes his point of view on the reality of elite academic institutions. He also began to write about grade inflation, to maintain a web site, gradeinflation.com, on the topic of college grading. He published articles on grading in the ''Teachers College Record'' and has appeared on NPR to discuss this topic. His writings have also appeared in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', and other
periodicals
A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a Academic journal, journal ...
.
In the 2000s, he began to write and perform music professionally and to write
literary fiction
Literary fiction, mainstream fiction, non-genre fiction or serious fiction is a label that, in the book trade, refers to market novels that do not fit neatly into an established genre (see genre fiction); or, otherwise, refers to novels that are ch ...
. He has been a Karma Foundation Annual Short Story Finalist and a National Science Foundation Young Investigator.
His novel, ''The Mathematician's Shiva'', was published by
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.National Jewish Book Award
The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature. The novel was shortlisted for the
Ribalow Prize The Ribalow Prize is a literary prize awarded annually by ''Hadassah Magazine'' the best work of fiction in English on a Jewish theme.
The prize, formally the Harold U. Ribalow Prize, was endowed in memory of Harold U. Ribalow, an American writer, ...