Look, dunce. I never said it was "PhD Level work". Just that he was entitled to use the title "Dr". I suspect that if a Brit moved to the US, and had a KCBE (Knight Commander of the British Empire) honorial, that he would still append that title to his correspondence.
"Yup, a Master. In philosphy, it required an "experimental" thesis, that is an original work, but not of the quality required for a PhD. In Italy, one is called "Dottore" with that degree. Indeed, it used to be the highest degree until 1986, if I remember correctly the year.
Which I already knew, and said so.
"I'm surprised you haven't even addressed my other critique of the letter supposedly verifying Rossi's academic credentials, which is that it appears doctored (font sizes change for no reason; there are extra spaces between words in a non-right justified document; the date formats are inconsistent).
Why should I bother? There is plenty of verification that Rossi has a legitimate degree from U. of Milan. Lewans, Krivit, and others have verified it. There is some confusion among them as to whether the degree is "laurea" or "dottore", which makes me think this whole "mountain from molehill" has a lot more to do with errors in translation than with any nefariousness.
"Last, I'll say that it must have been nice getting a PhD back in the 70s, when you apparently had lots of time to take classes in non-related subjects. Even had my program allowed for it, I simply did not have the luxury to take non-science classes.
LOL. I was referring to my undergraduate tenure. You say you spent "8-10" hours a day in the lab. By my standards, you were a slacker. I spent WAY more time than that "at the bench". 'Twas useful, too, as I got through my doctorate in three years.
Given Rossi's colorful past and non-academic style of expression, I am highly skeptical of his claim to any kind of university degree. If those people who verified Rossi's degree were looking at the same pdf file that is posted at the ecat.com site, then they should probably take a closer look at it. The discrepancies in the "letter" makes it look like a cut and paste job. In this age of PhotoShop and similar software, it's not difficult to do...