Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2022
Volume 67, Number 3
Monday–Friday, March 14–18, 2022; Chicago
Session S29: Speaking Up for Human Rights of Scientists, Just as Important Now as in Andrei Sakharov's TimeInvited Live Streamed Undergrad Friendly
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Sponsoring Units: FPS Chair: Peter Vorobieff, University of New Mexico Room: McCormick Place W-190B |
Thursday, March 17, 2022 8:00AM - 8:36AM |
S29.00001: Andrei Sakharov's legacy in his centenary year Invited Speaker: Tatiana Yankelevich I wish to talk about the concept of moral principles and intellectual responsibility of the scientists. In his 1981 appeal “The Responsibility of Scientists” Sakharov called the attention of the international scientific community to the fate of their colleagues in the Soviet Union and in other countries where free exchange of ideas is fraught with persecution. Sakharov assigned a special place to courage, integrity, and honesty as essential to the fulfillment of one’s responsibility, as they make it possible to resist the temptations and habits of conformity. Sakharov was one of the very few to have the intellectual courage and idealism to speak his mind. |
Thursday, March 17, 2022 8:36AM - 9:12AM |
S29.00002: From Fighting for Human Rights to Using Science as a Bridge to Peace Invited Speaker: Zafra Lerman |
Thursday, March 17, 2022 9:12AM - 9:48AM |
S29.00003: Human Rights of Scientists in Sakharov's Time and Now Invited Speaker: K. R Sreenivasan
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Thursday, March 17, 2022 9:48AM - 10:24AM |
S29.00004: Sakharov's efforts to save humanity from the nuclear weapons he helped create Invited Speaker: Frank N von Hippel After Sakharov’s contribution to the Soviet Union’s desperate effort to catch up with the US in the qualitative nuclear arms race ended in the mid-1950s, he began to worry about the dangers from both nuclear testing and the nuclear confrontation. He became passionately concerned about the biological effects of atmospheric nuclear testing – especially that the production of long-lived carbon-14 in the reaction n + 14N à 14C + p would contaminate the human gene pool and pushed for the atmospheric test ban treaty of 1963. Later, in 1987, he helped quiet Soviet paranoia about President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative by arguing that it could only result in an expensive and ineffective “Maginot Line” in space. Finally – and still relevantly – he warned that vulnerable multi-warhead silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles create an incentive for a first strike during a crisis. |
Thursday, March 17, 2022 10:24AM - 11:00AM |
S29.00005: Unity of Scientists in the Divisive World: For Truth, Peace & Human Rights Invited Speaker: Alexander V Kabanov Growing divisions undermine public trust in science, threaten collaboration and put scientists in jeopardy. International relations are increasingly adversarial amidst political convenience and shift towards propaganda. In the era of social media, the spread of untruths and falsehoods is virtually unhinged. We observe investigations, indictments, and arrests of scientists under the auspices of the struggle against "economic espionage" in the United States. Scientists in Russia are increasingly prosecuted for alleged "treason", "misuse of grants" or political views. Use of heavy-handed "police tactics" against scientists is gravely misplaced and will cause long-term damage in every nation that has practiced it. Criminalization of scientific cooperation damages scientific progress. These processes are general and involve overarching government regulation and control along with attacks of populists and in some cases fanatics against professionals. We need to remember Andrey Sakharov who stated in his Nobel Lecture "Peace, progress, human rights - these three goals are inextricably linked, it is impossible to achieve any one of them, neglecting others". As a scientific community, we must stand above our group interests and national borders and unite globally in pursuit of the stated goals. The indifference and silence are not an option. Every unfairly arrested scientist in any country must be a focus of attention of all. We should call for intergovernmental agreements with "bona fide" code of conduct for international collaboration of scientists: transparency, no research duplication, and intellectual property protection. We must speak to each other and jointly fight populism, anti-intellectualism, and untruths in science-related matters. We need an International Academic Council for Peace, Human Rights, Cooperation and Global Security to coordinate our activities and improve understanding. |
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