Committee of Concerned Scientists

An international non-profit organization of scientists, physicians, engineers and scholars dedicated to protecting the human rights and scientific freedom of our colleagues around the world.

An independent non-profit organization of scientists, physicians, engineers and scholars dedicated to protecting the human rights and scientific freedom of our colleagues around the world.

Scientist Dying in Prison for Refusing to Help Iran Develop Nuclear Weapons | Washington Examiner

Omid Kokabee chained to a hospital bed before cancer surgery

Omid Kokabee chained to a hospital bed before cancer surgery

Omid Kokabee’s fate is at the mercy of the Revolutionary Courts, who execute the will of the Supreme Leader, now that he has suffered kidney cancer and had his right kidney removed.

Omid Kokabee was recently diagnosed with kidney cancer that required surgery to completely remove his right kidney. Kokabee has been in Evin Prison in Iran since 2011 for failing to cooperate with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. He was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison, where he remains. He was recently moved to a hospital for surgery to address this cancer but is expected to be returned to prison following surgery.

Dr. Eugene Chudnovsky, a Distinguished Professor of Physics at City University of New York and a co-chair of CCS, has written an editorial for The Washington Examiner detailing this case.

Scientist Dying in Prison for Refusing to Help Iran Develop Nuclear Weapon

By Eugene M. Chudnovsky

Fifteen years ago the supreme leader of Iran, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, met with 18-year-old Omid Kokabee, a high-school graduate of extraordinary talent who performed exceptionally well on the country’s nationwide college entrance exams. Today, Kokabee is dying in an Iranian prison for his refusal to apply his talents to help Iran develop an atomic bomb.

I told the story of Omid Kokabee in two Washington Examiner op-eds published on April 23 and September 2 of last year. He was a physics doctoral student at the University of Texas in Austin when he was arrested in Tehran on a visit with his family during a winter break in 2011.

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Who We Are

Co-chairs

Joel L. Lebowitz, Rutgers University

Walter Reich, George Washington University

Eugene Chudnovsky, Lehman College

Alexander Greer, Brooklyn College

Vice-chairs

Biology – Max E. Gottesman, Columbia University

Chemistry – Zafra Lerman, MIMSAD Inc.

Computer Science – Rachelle Heller, The George Washington University

Engineering – Philip Sarachik, NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering

Computer Science – Jack Minker, University of Maryland, College Park

Mathematics – Simon Levin, Princeton University

Honorary Board Members

Nancy Andrews, Duke University

Myles Axton, Chief Editor, Genetics and Genomics Next

David Baltimore, California Institute of Technology*

Alan J. Bard, University of Texas

David Gross, University of California, Santa Barbara*

James Langer, University of California, Santa Barbara

Peter Lax, New York University

Giorgio Parisi, Roma I University La Sapienza

John C. Polanyi, University of Toronto*

Stuart Rice, University of Chicago

Sir Richard J. Roberts, New England Biolabs*

Maxine Singer, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Alfred I. Tauber, Boston University

Myrna Weissman, Columbia University

Former Honorary Board Members

Jacob Bigeleisen (deceased), SUNY, Stony Brook

Raoul Bott (deseased) Harvard University

Owen Chamberlain (deceased), University of California, Berkeley

Stanley Deser (deceased), Brandeis University

Edward Gerjuoy (deceased), University of Pittsburgh

Pierre Hohenberg (deceased), New York University

Walter Kohn (deceased), University of California, Santa Barbara*

Louis Nirenberg (deceased), New York University

Marshall Nirenberg (deceased), National Institutes of Health*

Myriam Sarachick (deceased), City College of New York

Harold Scheraga (deceased), Cornell University

Sylvan Schweber (deceased), Brandeis University

Steven Weinberg (deceased), University of Texas, Austin*

Rosalyn S. Yalow (deceased), Mount Sinai School of Medicine*

* Nobel laureate

Committee of Concerned Scientists

c/o Alexandra R. Bender, Executive Director
P.O. Box 273
Mountainhome, PA 18342
abender@concernedscientists.org