I’m also from another field, but 19 papers and 5 first-author papers over 23 years is a huge red flag. Many graduate students wind up with 3-4 first-author papers by the time they graduate. I don’t know what he was doing with his time, but the publication record seems to be the elephant in the room.
Agreed. I don't know if this applies to the article author, but I've met a few "lifestyle" post-docs. They do just enough to keep in the system, but don't rise above that (either capability or motivation).
