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.

An American Computer Scientist and Indian Pediatrician Receive the 2011 Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award

CCS Board Member Jack Minker giving his acceptance speech at the New York Academy of Sciences

CCS Board Member Jack Minker delivering his acceptance speech at the New York Academy of Sciences

CCS Board Member Jack Minker and Dr. Binayak Sen (in absentia) received the Heinz R. Pagels Award on September 22, 2011 from the New York Academy of Science. Dr. Kamiar Alaei from Iran (pictured with Dr. Minker) attended.

Dr. Minker has been Vice-Chairman of the Committee of Concerned Scientists since 1973, and served as Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights (CSFHR) of the Association for Computing Machinery from 1980 to 1989, devoting himself to assisting and publicizing fellow computer scientists from around the world whose human rights had been violated.

Dr. Sen has devoted himself to the medical needs of poor people in his province of  Chhattisgarh. His advocacy for the rights of the poor and of tribal minorities led the local government to prosecute him for sedition. In 2010, a court in Raipur sentenced him to life in prison. Dr. Sen’s lawyers have appealed his guilty verdict and he is currently on bail in India, after the Supreme Court in New Delhi questioned the basis for his conviction (see our story). Dr. Mary Ganguli, a friend and colleague from the University of Pittsburgh, accepted the award on his behalf.

Kamiar Alaei and Jack Minker at NYAS Pagels Prize awards ceremony

Kamiar Alaei and Jack Minker at NYAS Pagels Prize awards ceremony

A surprise guest, the 2009 Heinz R. Pagels Award co-recipient, Dr. Kamiar Alaei, who was imprisoned at the time of his award, also addressed the Academy. Both Dr. Kamiar and his brother Arash were imprisoned in Iran after winning international recognition for their work on HIV/AIDS (see our story). Dr. Alaei, who is now pursuing his postgraduate work at Albany State Medical School, thanked the international human rights community for its advocacy on behalf of both brothers.

Read the acceptance speeches from Dr. Jack Minker and Dr. Binayak Sen.

Learn More

2011 Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award, New York Academy of Sciences website

Doctors Kamiar and Arash Alaei on CNN’s “Sanjay Gupta, MD”, Physicians for Human Rights website

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