Question for Gurus...

[trojanblue]

Is it alright if in the reco letter, the writer claims that he has known me and my work for over 10 years but has never collaborated with me on any project? Please note that he works in a different company and we have known each other for long and have exchanged notes about our work. I would also like to add that we do not work in the same area of Materials Science.

 

[honkman]

Is it alright if in the reco letter, the writer claims that he has known me and my work for over 10 years but has never collaborated with me on any project? Please note that he works in a different company and we have known each other for long and have exchanged notes about our work. I would also like to add that we do not work in the same area of Materials Science.

I would write that the writer knows (or better follows) your work for over 10 years but in my opinion he shouldn't mention how long he knows you even if you never worked together on a project.

 

[sarasota]

another suggestion

Is it alright if in the reco letter, the writer claims that he has known me and my work for over 10 years but has never collaborated with me on any project? Please note that he works in a different company and we have known each other for long and have exchanged notes about our work. I would also like to add that we do not work in the same area of Materials Science.

He can write something like -I met Dr. Trojanblue at the international conference of materials 10 years ago, where he presented a ground breaking work on materials.... Ever since I have been following his research....
(I am assuming you both might have attended the same conference somewhere)

 

[Reverse_Man]

There is no need for you two to have met each other. I would say something like this: "even though I do not know Dr.X personally, I've been aware of his groundbreaking/seminal/extraordinary/etc. contributions to the BLAH field since his groundbreaking/seminal/extraordinary/etc. paper in BLAH journal/conference." With this you can establish that you don't know the letter writer personally.