AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

Biography of Irving Lerch

Dr. Irving Lerch has made a career of promoting international scientific collaboration and protecting the human rights and freedoms essential to the preservation and advancement of the world's scientific enterprise. He has worked behind-the-scenes to remove obstacles preventing scientists from attending international meetings, he has tirelessly promoted human rights, and he has been an outspoken activist on behalf of individuals whose rights have been violated.

Irving Lerch is currently the Director of International Affairs for the American Physical Society (APS), a position he had held since 1991. He also serves as the staff advisor to the APS Committee on International Freedom of Scientists (CIFS). CIFS is an extremely active committee that monitors concerns regarding the human rights of scientists worldwide. Awarded a PhD in medical physics in 1969 from the University of Chicago, Dr. Lerch has held both academic and policy positions. He was nominated and seconded by the US Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Energy for two terms as a program officer with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. In 1976, he returned to the US to head the Department of Radiation Oncology Physics at New York University.

Irving Lerch is a former member of the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility from 1998 through 2001 and served as the committee’s chair during the last three years of his term. While with CSFR, he consistently urged the committee and AAAS to tackle sensitive issues related to the globalization of science, and was keenly interested in the balance between scientific freedom and national security well before the events of September 11, 2001. Before and after the event, Lerch was openly critical of efforts to limit scientific freedom due solely to reasons of nationality or race. He continues his advocacy on this issue and has distinguished himself as a leading champion of international scientific freedom.

Dr. Lerch is a AAAS fellow and has authored many papers and reports on physics and international science policy. He served as secretary of the US Liaison Committee to the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics and adviser to the International Science Foundation. He retires from APS this year.