Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2010
Volume 55, Number 1
Saturday–Tuesday, February 13–16, 2010; Washington, DC
Session S5: Sakharov Prize |
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Sponsoring Units: DPF Chair: Robert Cahn, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Room: Thurgood Marshall West |
Monday, February 15, 2010 3:30PM - 4:06PM |
S5.00001: Andrei Sakharov Prize Talk: Supporting Repressed Scientists: Continuing Efforts Invited Speaker: Some years ago, Max Perutz asked ``By What Right Do We Scientists Invoke Human Rights?" My presentation will start with mentioning actions of the international community which relate to this question. Such action as the creation in 1919 of the International Research Council, and continuing on to the present with the UN sanctioned International Council of Scientific Unions [ICSU], and other Committees such as those formed by APS, CCS, NYAS, AAAS which give support to repressed scientists around the world now. My own work has attempted to combine my individual initiatives with work as a member and officer of these groups. Together with like minded colleagues who are deeply affected when colleagues are discharged from their positions, exiled, imprisoned and subject to brutal treatment, often after mock ``trials", we react. On visits in 1968 to conferences in Budapest, and then in 1969 to Moscow, Tallin and Leningrad I became personally and deeply touched by the lives of colleagues who were seriously constrained by living under dictatorships. I could move freely into and out of their countries,speak openly about my work or any other matter. They could not, under penalty of possibly serious punishment. Yet, I felt these people were like my extended family. If my grandparents had not left Eastern Europe for the USA in the late 189Os our situations could have been reversed. A little later in the 197O's, ``refusenik" and ``dissident" scientists in the USSR needed support. Colleagues like Andrei Sakharov, Naum Meiman, Mark Azbel, Yakov Alpert, Yuri Orlov and others were being punished for exercising their rights under the UN sanctioned international protocals on ``Universality of Science and Free Circulation of Scientists". Their own governments [which signed these agreements] ignored the very protections they had supported. On frequent trips to the USSR during the 7Os,and 8Os I also seized the opportunity for ``individual initiative" to help these colleagues. I asked for, and got, the opportunity to meet some high level Soviet administrators such as vice President Velikhov of the Academy of Sciences as well as Laboratory directors, and pressed the cases of individual scientists by name. This led to a memorable double existence. During the days I was an ``official guest" of the USSR, while in the evening I would visit colleagues who were fired ; on weekends I participated in Refusenick ``Sunday" Seminars in an apartment in Moscow. This all changed in 1991 with the end of communism in the USSR. Unfortunatly various authorities in the new Russia still violate the UN protocals and scientists there need support even now. The need to continue both individual \& group mode of support continues to the present, and now includes helping colleagues in China, Cuba, Iran, the USA [Wen Ho Lee case],and other locales around the world. Intervention for Liu Gang [imprisoned in Beijing], Professor Fang LiZhi, and others in China, the brothers Drs Allaei in Iran, was and is still necessary. In all these cases we must have reliable information. We publicize by direct contact with officials of the relevant country. And very important is that we press the U S government to intervene. Even the step of having a US official inquire about a repressed scientist makes a difference. Judge Brandeis of the U S Supreme Court is the attributed author of the saying that ``Sunlight is the best disinfectant". Sunlight on repression can help end it. When Andrei Sakharov first visited New York at the Academy of Sciences in 1988 he gave us advice which I paraphrase ``Keep alert and informed of violations of Human Rights everywhere and protest both individually and together". Scientific work has deep rewards when you discover a new aspect or explanation for natural phenomena. Supporting repressed colleagues as part of the fabric of scientific work adds another dimension. Namely our satisfaction upon greeting Sakharov, Fang, and others and we know that to some degree our efforts helped free them. This too is an answer to the Max Perutz question: our right is to help another scientist do his or her work, and to reap the reward of knowing we aided. Contact information for the Committee of Concerned Scientists [CCS], The APS Committee on International Freedom of Scientist [CIFS] and other groups efforts are easily obtained on the net. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 4:06PM - 4:42PM |
S5.00002: Andrei Sakharov Prize Talk: Guerrilla Tactics for Human Rights: the Paradigm of Scientists for Sakharov, Orlov and Sharansky (SOS) Invited Speaker: In response to the seriously deteriorating plight of dissident scientist colleagues in the former Soviet Union in the late 1970s, a small group of physicists at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) came together to plot out a new course of action on behalf of their beleaguered colleagues. A guiding principle was to engage individual scientists to act collectively in unorthodox efforts to publicly ``encourage'' the Soviet authorities to cease their human rights violations. While the focus was to be on the three scientists in the eventual name of the group, ``Scientists for Sakharov, Orlov and Sharansky (SOS),'' it was also meant to be a lightning rod for the more general concern of the plight of all dissident scientists. Examples of such actions included an unprecedented moratorium on scientific cooperation with the Soviet Union, a ``Hostages for Elena Bonner'' initiative where Western scientists volunteered to serve as good-faith witnesses in the Soviet Union for the temporary release of Sakharov's wife for medical treatment in the West, and picketing of embassies and of selected scientists at scientific conferences. Within two years from this small beginning in Berkeley and with no staff whatsoever, the effort grew into an international movement to promote the human rights of scientists, comprising more than 8,000 scientists from 44 countries. As co-founder and chairperson of SOS, I will discuss the evolution of the group's operational principles and actions as well as various reactions to its initiatives, and some possible lessons learned. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 4:42PM - 5:18PM |
S5.00003: Andrei Sakharov Prize Talk: Human Rights and International Science -- a Symbiotic Relationship Invited Speaker: International collaborations, with which scientists have long been involved, have made them staunch defenders of human rights around the world. Collaborations involving a pair, or a small group, of scientists from different countries have been common for more than 100 years. Starting more than 50 years ago, CERN has become the quintessential example of the benefits of large scale international cooperation. Now many national laboratories and projects have major participation by foreign scientists. As a result, scientists around the world quickly become aware when their colleagues are persecuted for opinions and activities that are commonly accepted in most countries. Their prompt and sustained protests to the offending governments have often resulted in the release of imprisoned colleagues. They have helped dissidents leave the danger in their home countries and provided employment opportunities to sustain them in other countries, and allow them to continue to function as scientists. In 2001 I became aware that an Iranian colleague, with whom I had worked on the SESAME Project (www.sesame.org.jo), was imprisoned for opinions critical of his government. I had long been involved with efforts to help scientists and other dissidents being persecuted in countries such as China and the Soviet Union. However this was the first time that someone with whom I had a working relationship, and who I respected and admired, was severely persecuted (solitary confinement, torture) for opinions which I shared. In this talk I will review what I have learned from this case and other experience about coming to the aid of dissidents. In particular I will describe the activities of Scholars at Risk (http://scholarsatrisk.nyu.edu/) and the Scholars Rescue Fund (http://www.scholarrescuefund.org/pages/intro.php). Their offer of {\$}20K to any institution which will provide matching funds to support an endangered dissident has saved careers and lives. [Preview Abstract] |
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