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.

Who We Are


As now constituted, the Committee of Concerned Scientists enjoys the leadership of 11 Executive Committee members (co-chairs and vice-chairs), 18 Honorary Board Members, and an Advisory Board of scientists, physicians, engineers, and scholars.

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

Engineering – Philip Sarachik, NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering

Mathematics – Simon Levin, Princeton University

Medical Sciences – J. Joseph Blum, Duke University

Physics – Joseph Birman (deceased), City College of New York

Past Co-chairs

Robert S. Adelstein, National Institutes of Health

Jack Cohen, Tel Aviv University

Max E. Gottesman, Columbia University

Mark Kac (deceased), University of Southern California

Peter S. Pershan, Harvard University

Fred Pollak (deceased), Brooklyn College

H. Eugene Stanley, Boston 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

Jacob Bigeleisen (deceased), SUNY, Stony Brook

Raoul Bott (deceased), Harvard University

Owen Chamberlain (deceased), University of California, Berkeley

Stanley Deser, Brandeis University

Edward Gerjuoy (deceased), University of Pittsburgh

David Gross, 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*

John C. Polanyi, University of Toronto*

Stuart Rice, University of Chicago

Sir Richard J. Roberts, 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*

Advisory Board Members

Mark Alber, Notre Dame University

Bruce Alberts, University of California, San Francisco

Joan Birman, Barnard College

Marvin Bishop, Manhattan College

Sidney Bludman, Universidad de Chile

Sylvain Cappell, New York University

Gregory Cherlin, Rutgers University

Milton Cole, Penn State University

Richard Ebright, Rutgers University

Xin-Yuan Fu, Indiana University

Azriel Genack, Queens College

James Griffin, University of Maryland

Robert B. Griffith, Carnegie Mellon University

Bertrand Halperin, Harvard University

B. Loerinc Helft, CUNY

Peter Hotez, Baylor College of Medicine

Andy Kent, New York University

Simon Levin, Princeton University

Walter Neumann, Columbia University

Charles Newman, New York University

Peter Pershan, Harvard University

Murray Peshkin, Argonne National Laboratory

Gerald Porter, University of Pennsylvania

Daniel Prober, Yale University

Elisabeth Rachlew, Royal Institute of
Technology (KTH)

Anthony Ralston, Royal Roads University

Ivor Robinson, University of Texas

Harold Scheraga, Cornell University

Sidney Simon, Duke University

Thomas Spiro, University of Washington

Edward Stern, University of Washington

Svetlana Stone Wachtell

Earl Taft, Rutgers University

Betty Tsang, Michigan State University

Norman Zabusky, Weizmann Institute

* Nobel laureate

Executive Director

Carol Susan Valoris

Past Executive Directors

Dorothy Hirsch (deceased), Emerita
Sophie Cook, Emerita