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.

Belarus throws a Nobel winner in prison

by Eugene Chudnovsky, March 04, 2023

On Friday, a court in Belarus handed down a 10-year prison term to Ales Bialiatski, winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. Bialiatski, 60, is a founder of the Viasna (Spring) Human Rights Centre that has been monitoring presidential elections and aiding political prisoners since 1996. He was imprisoned for funding political protests.

Bialiatski, who holds a doctorate in Belarusian literature, has participated in the pro-democracy movement since the early 1980s. In the 1990s, he was a director of the Literary Museum in Minsk that housed pro-democracy NGOs and published an independent newspaper. He was elected to the Minsk City Council and served as secretary and then deputy chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front. In 2003, the Supreme Court of Belarus declared Viasna illegal, but Belarus’s leading human rights center never stopped its activities. In 2011 Bialiatski was thrown in jail for four and a half years on trumped-up charges of tax evasion. A worldwide campaign on his behalf led to his release from prison in 2014. Until 2016, he served as vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights. Read more

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

CONTACT

Edyta Greer
Executive Director
P.O. Box 112
New York, NY 10159
emgreer@concernedscientists.org