AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

Human Rights Day Event:
Honoring Dr. Zafra M. Lerman

Friday, 2 December 2005

Panel Discussion 3:00pm-5:00pm

Reception honoring
Dr. Zafra M. Lerman
immediately to follow, 5:00pm-7:00pm

Zafra Lerman

Each year, the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program sponsors a topical lecture and reception to honor a US-based scientist who has made significant contributions to advancing human rights within the scientific community. The event is coordinated with international observation of Human Rights Day, the anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

The event provides the science community an opportunity to recognize one of its members who is making explicit the connections between fundamental freedoms and the conduct of science. The AAAS Science and Human Rights Program's mission is based on the principle that the full realization of human rights is a precondition for the scientific endeavor and should be defended and encouraged as a matter of scientific freedom and responsibility.

This year, the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program is honoring Dr. Zafra M. Lerman, Distinguished Professor of Science and Public Policy and Head of the Institute for Science Education and Science Communication at Columbia College, Chicago. Zafra is the chair of the American Chemical Society's (ACS) Subcommittee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights, a position she has held since the committee was formed in 1987. On behalf of the subcommittee and in her own personal capacity, Zafra has been and outstanding advocate for human rights and has worked tirelessly on behalf of many persecuted scientists around the world. She has also been very involved in working to address US government restrictions on travel for academics and researchers interested in traveling to Cuba. Speaking about the subcommittee, Zafra has stated that, "Chemists are one family dedicated to improving life through chemistry. If we have members of our community wrongly accused for their beliefs, ethics or activities, then we should stand up for them. The rest of the community should help."

Zafra also once famously told a reporter, "I am very busy. I am trying to achieve peace in the Middle East and teach the world about science." Her work at the Columbia College Institute for Science Education and Science Communication, an institute she founded in 1991, fulfills the latter portion of her personal mission. As for achieving peace in the Middle East, Zafra has organized two major conferences in Malta that draw research chemists from the region to discuss some of the key issues facing the Middle East-the environment, health, education and economic development-and the role that chemists can play in addressing these challenges. The Malta conferences (the first was held in 2003 and the second in November 2005) are also an exercise in diplomatic relations. Billed as a "Pugwash" for chemical scientists, a goal of the conferences is to forge relationships of trust and mutual tolerance and respect.

On December 2nd, a high profile panel of chemists will discuss the Malta Conferences, future plans for collaboration within the region, and the role of scientists as peacemakers. A reception to honor Zafra will follow the panel discussion.

Panel Discussion:

• Zafra M. Lerman, Distinguished Professor of Science and Public Policy and Head of the Institute for Science Education and Science Communication at Columbia College, Chicago
• Ahmed Mohamed, Welch Visiting Professor of Chemistry, Texas A & M University
• E. Ann Nalley, President-Elect of the American Chemical Society
  
• Charles Kolb, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aerodyne Research, Inc
  
• Arthur B. Ellis, Director of the Division of Chemistry, National Science Foundation
  

Reception to Follow. This event is open to the public. Please forward this invite on to any interested parties.

Resources:

Congressional Record from May 2004 on Malta Conference

On the Malta Conference from the Institute for Science Education and Science Communication at Columbia College Chicago

Science For Peace in The Middle East, from Chemical and Engineering News

To see past Human Rights Day events, click here.

(site updated 12/01/2005)