An appeals court overturned a manslaughter conviction of six Italian scientists and one government employee on November 10, 2017 that they had failed to predict in March 2009. After assuring the community that the earthquake was not coming, it actually did one week later. In October 2012 the seven members of a study commission regarding the earthquake were found guilty of manslaughter. The appeals court ruled that there was no causal link between the deaths from the earthquake and the predictions of the seismologists. Lawyers for the families of the deceased, however, said that they will challenge the ruling.
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