Hua Qu, the wife of Xiyue Wang, is pleading for help to have her husband released from Evin Prison in Iran. In late May Xiyue Wang marked his 1,000 day of incarceration unjustly imprisoned in Iran. Wang, a PhD candidate in Princeton University’s history department was arrested and accused of espionage in August 2016 while conducting pre-approved research for his doctoral dissertation. Wang was comparing national boundaries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His research had been approved by the Iranian government, allowing him to review manuscripts that are over a century old. The documents had nothing to do with contemporary Iranian politics, nor were they confidential. Qu wrote an article for the Washington Post imploring China, Iran and the US to assist in the release of her husband. (My husband is unjustly imprisoned in Iran. The international community must help., Washington Post, May 24, 2019, Hua Qu). The United Nations experts have also requested Iran to immediately release Wang noting that his detention is arbitrary and a clear violation of fundamental rights guaranteed under international law. (UN experts urge Iran to release imprisoned American scholar Xiyue Wang)
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