<< It would appear that Dr. Diwan, PhD is reasonably well qualified, >>
Okay. Let's look at two very good metrics of how to judge who is "well qualified" or not. Both are direct reflections of what his peers think, and what he has accomplished: peer-reviewed original research, and peer-reviewed grants (e.g., NIH, NSF, DOD, etc.).
Regarding the first: Diwan's last publication was 12 years ago. That was a letter to the editor expressing an opinion (hence, not original research, and not peer-reviewed). It had nothing to do with viruses at all. The topic was shiatsu massage.
The previous "publication" was another letter. This one, published 15 years ago, did have something to do with viruses, in this case a comment on testing for hepatitis C virus.
Prior to that, Diwan was a co-author on a technical paper on gel electrophoresis (his PhD was in chemical engineering). That was in 1989, published in a journal with an impact factor of 2.4, in other words, a third-rate journal. This evidently was published when Diwan was a postdoc.
The only paper he was a co-author on that had anything to do with viruses at all was a paper published 20 years ago on serological testing for Hantaan virus, also in a third-rate journal. He was a co-author on 3 or 4 other similar sorts of papers between 1981 and 1985. He was first author on only one of the papers, which actually was a description of a specific ELISA assay.
So, here we have a guy who has published nothing peer-reviewed in the last 16 years. The picture is that he came to Rice roughly 20-25 years ago, got a PhD, worked hard enough on other people's projects that he got his name on a few very minor papers that are essentially irrelevant to NNVC's "work" and "product." Then he did a postdoc, and produced little, and his academic "career" basically ended 16 years ago while he was still in training. In other words, he didn't make it in academic research at all and never got a faculty appointment anywhere.
What about grants? Well, he has no NIH funding at all, and I could find no evidence that he ever got any NIH funding ever in his life.
Somewhere along the way, he managed to get a patent on a rather vague chemical technology of limited and completely unproven relevance to virology or treatment of diseases.
He got involved somehow in TheraCour, which bit the dust.
This is hardly the picture of somebody who "holds consistently high academic ranks and honors." He never held any academic rank at all in any academic institution anywhere, as best I could find. This is, rather, the picture of somebody who got a typically substandard undergraduate education in a third-world country, managed to get a PhD here in the US, was unable to develop an academic career, bounced around some, and eventually hit upon the idea of making a lotta bucks with sophisticated-sounding high-techie type fly-by-night startups, and that's what he's doing now.
Even if he WAS somebody who "holds consistently high academic ranks and honors" (which he isn't), that alone is hardly enough to pull off what he would have you believe NNVC is going to pull off. There are literally tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of individuals who "hold consistently high academic ranks and honors" relevant to virology, yet who simply could not begin to deliver the kinds of "products" NNVC implies it will deliver.
But don't take my word for it, John. Do your own investigation, and I'd suggest that reading website propaganda/marketing hype is not a good source of information.
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