French professor facing probe for creating fake Nobel-style prize - only to award it to himself

A French professor is being investigated after he allegedly invented a Nobel Prize-like body to grant himself a prestigious award and advance his career.

Florent Montaclair is accused of creating the International Society of Philology and then organising a ceremony at the National Assembly in Paris in 2016, where he awarded himself a Gold Medal of Philology.

Philology is the study of language through texts and prominent linguists including Noam Chomsky are renowned for their work in the field.

Prosecutors said that the unlikely tale was like something “out of a film”.

Paul-Edouard Lallois, the prosecutor in charge of the inquiry, said that Montaclair began his plot in 2015. Around that time a local newspaper in the region where he lived in Besançon in eastern France ran a newspaper headline that read: “Local man on shortlist for Nobel.”

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The article suggested that Montaclair had beat out stiff competition to be whittled down to the final five before it was announced in December 2015 that he had won it. An awards ceremony then took place in Paris in June the following year.

The plot ran so deep that philosopher Noam Chomsky is reported to have attended the ceremony by the institution in 2017 where he was awarded an honorary gold medal from the International Society.

Footage of the ceremony is reported to be still available online with a list of laureates listed on the website dating back to 1967. Other winners listed on the page include the renowned author Umberto Eco who is said to have won the accolade in 1996.

“The gold medal for philology is a pure creation of Mr Florent Montaclair, who awarded it to himself via the intervention of this learned society, which he himself had evidently created, and this university, which only exists on an internet site,” said Lallois.

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The controversy was uncovered in 2019 when Eugen Simion was named the next recipient of the prize, with the story sparking headlines across the country but was not picked up by French press and according to the BBC, Montaclair continued in his work as a professor at the Marie and Louis Pasteur University.

Last year, Montaclair was due to chair an event on fake news and disinformation when the story emerged after a colleague recalled the rumours.

When approached by Le Monde, Montaclair is reported to have said: “It's not a con. It's an attempt to set up a new distinction in the world of academia - an attempt that failed.”

Montaclair has reportedly been expelled from the university, according to Euro News.

He denies all allegations of criminality.

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