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.

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Weather Bureau Employee Cleared of Spy Investigation but Fired From Her Position at NOAA

June 8, 2016

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Department of JusticsSherry Chen, an employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was notified that she was being investigated by the Justice Department for spying for China in October 2014. The investigation cleared her but she was never reinstated, and was eventually fired from her position with the Weather Service for NOAA.

CCS has written on behalf of Ms. Chen in the past and is now sending a follow-up letter requesting that NOAA reinstate her. Chinese Americans who are working in the United States are finding that they are frequently suspected of spying for China and investigations so far have not proven such.

June 6, 2016

Dr. Kathryn D. Sullivan
Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans & Atmosphere/
NOAA Administrator
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Room 5128
Washington, DC 20230

Dear Under Secretary Sullivan,

As the Committee of Concerned Scientists, dedicated to defending the human rights of scientists under threat around the world, we write to express our dismay at the continuing mistreatment of Sherry Chen, a Chinese-American hydrologist who, until March, worked at the National Weather Service.

Allegations that she had improper contact with the Chinese government were thoroughly investigated by the Justice Department and a pending case against her was dropped in early 2015. However, a year later she was fired due to essentially the same apparently baseless allegations. This May, she filed a formal discrimination complaint against NOAA.

We wrote to the National Weather Service Deputy Director in December, when Sherry Chen’s firing was imminent. We expressed then and reiterate now our concern that the attempt to prosecute Sherry Chen appears to be part of a disconcerting trend in which law enforcement has targeted Asian American scholars and scientists.

For example, Temple University physics professor Xi Xiaoxing was also investigated, arrested, and, like Ms. Chen, charged with serious crimes, only to have his case dropped. He was reinstated at the University, but also was denied his former position and the ability to continue to work on a grant he was heading prior to his investigation. Citing other cases, like those of Guoqing Cao, Shuyu Li, Dr. Haiping Su, and Dr. Wen Ho Lee, Members of Congress have called for an investigation into this “practice and pattern of the federal government profiling Chinese American scientists as spies from China even when there is no credible evidence to support it.”

Under these circumstances it is perplexing and disturbing that Sherry Chen would lose her job after the allegations against her proved to be unfounded. There appears to be no legitimate reason for her employment to have been terminated, so we urge you to allow Sherry Chen to return to her position at the National Weather Service, free to pursue her chosen profession without discrimination.

Sincerely,

Joel L. Lebowitz, Paul H. Plotz, Walter Reich,
Eugene M. Chudnovsky, Alexander Greer

Co-Chairs, Committee of Concerned Scientists

Copies To:

Penny Pritzker
Secretary of Commerce
U.S. Department of Commerce
Herbert C. Hoover Building
1401 Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC 20230

Related Stories

  • Chinese-American Cleared of Spying Charges Now Faces Firing (nytimes.com)
  • Falsely accused of spying, Weather Service employee’s life turned upside down (washingtonpost.com)
  • Was Race A Factor in Sherry Chen’s Espionage Case? (nbcnews.com)

Filed Under: United States Tagged With: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service, NOAA, Sherry Chen, Temple University, United States Department of Justice, United States Government, Xi Xiaoxing

Who We Are

Co-chairs

Joel L. Lebowitz, Rutgers University

Paul H. Plotz, M.D., Washington, DC

Walter Reich, George Washington University

Eugene Chudnovsky, Lehman College

Alexander Greer, Brooklyn College

Vice-chairs

Astronomy – Arno Penzias, New Enterprises Associates*

Biology – Max E. Gottesman, Columbia University

Chemistry – Zafra Lerman, MIMSAD Inc.

Computer Science – Rachelle Heller, The George Washington University

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

Engineering – Philip Sarachik, NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering

Mathematics – Simon Levin, Princeton University

Medical Sciences – J. Joseph Blum, Duke University

Honorary Board Members

Nancy Andrews, Duke University

David Baltimore, California Institute of Technology*

Alan J. Bard, University of Texas

Jacob Bigeleisen (deceased), SUNY, Stony Brook

Raoul Bott (deceased), Harvard University

Owen Chamberlain (deceased), University of California, Berkeley

Stanley Deser, Brandeis University

Edward Gerjuoy, University of Pittsburg

David Gross, (2004 Nobel Prize in Physics), Kavil Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara*

Pierre Hohenberg (deceased), New York University

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

James Langer, University of California, Santa Barbara

Peter Lax, New York University

Louis Nirenberg, New York University

Marshall Nirenberg (deceased), National Institutes of Health*

Honorary Board Members

John C. Polanyi, University of Toronto*

Stuart Rice, University of Chicago

Sir Richard J. Roberts, (1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology & Medicine), New England Biolabs*

Myriam Sarachick, City College of New York

Harold Scheraga, Cornell University

Sylvan Schweber (deceased), Brandeis University

Maxine Singer, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Alfred I. Tauber, Boston University

Steven Weinberg, University of Texas, Austin*

Myrna Weissman, Columbia University

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

* Nobel laureate

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