Dr. Murat Tuncer, a pediatric oncologist and former rector of Hacettepe University, was acquitted on March 19, 2020. He is internationally respected for his academic activities and contribution to cancer research. Dr. Tuncer was in charge of the collaboration between Turkey’s Ministry of Health with the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and was overseeing Turkey’s admission to the WHO agency. He was dismissed from his position in September 2016, and taken into custody in April 2018. He served almost a year detention without a charge. In February 2020, he was indicted and faced up to 15 years in prison. There was no credible evidence to support the charges he was facing. Finally, he was acquitted of national security-related charges by the Criminal Court in Ankara on March 19, 2020.
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