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.
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17 Scholars, from Meliksah University in Turkey, Sentenced To Maximum of 11 Years in Prison

In the aftermath of the attempted coup in 2016, many universities in Turkey were closed leaving staff with no jobs and students with no available schooling. Many staff members of these schools were charged for “supporting a terrorist organization.” Meliksah University was one of those involved. On August 15, 2016 arrest warrants were issued for 100 members of their staff. Sixty-three were detained for 11 days. Then, the court arrested 19 of them, including President, Vice President, General Secretary of the University, Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Department Chairs, Directories of Graduate Schools. The rest of the detainees were released under conditions of judicial control and placed on a travel ban. On March 21, 2018, about 20 months after the arrests, the court sentenced Veli Demirci, the General Secretary, to 11 years, 3 months prison time; Mahmut D Mat, Rector, to 10 years prison time; Murat Sen, Dean of Law school, to 12 years prison time; Prof. Onur Genç, Chair of the Department of Construction Engineering and Prof. Halit Akturk, to 8 years, 9 months prison time; Profs. Emin Emiza, Bilal Vatansever and Dogan Bulut to 6 years 10 months prison time; and Profs. Hayrettin Eren, Mustafa Yuzukirmizi, Metin Mete Ozbilen, Huseyin Kalyoncu, Ahmet Uyar, Mustafa Yilmaz, Nihat Koroglu to 6 years and 3 months prison time. The cases for Profs. Mustafa Unalmis and Kanber Sedef are still pending but they are still currently confined. CCS has written the Turkish Minister of Justice to request a review of these cases with the release of these individuals and a dismissal of their charges and withdrawal of the travel restrictions.

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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