Walter L. Borst
Professor of Physics
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, Texas
23 August 2001
Marc H.
Brodsky (via e-mail)
CEO and
Executive Director
American
Institute of Physics
One Physics
Ellipse
College
Park, Maryland 20740
Dear Dr.
Brodsky,
I urge you
to reinstate Dr. Jeff Schmidt to his position as a staff editor at Physics
Today. His firing by you makes no
sense to me. You should be proud of
having an intelligent and independent person working for Physics Today. Also, he has done an excellent job for the
magazine and I have enjoyed reading it.
The firing
of Dr. Schmidt was brought to my attention by e-mail from other physicists and
APS members. While I do not know the
details of the firing and while the tenor of the e-mail of course is supportive
of Dr. Schmidt, I see enough substance to be very concerned by your
actions. It seems to me that Dr.
Schmidt's book Disciplined Minds and his, in my opinion, valuable
"activism" got him fired. Do
you disagree with my assessment?
The
appearance of the book seemed to have been the last straw. This should not be the procedure to get rid
of productive people with whose opinions and own independent scholarly work you
disagree. In no way does Dr. Schmidt's
book seem to have influenced the quality of his work at Physics Today.
I am very
disappointed by the firing of Dr. Schmidt by the American Institute of Physics
and I am concerned in which direction it is heading. I believe that Dr. Schmidt has stayed well within the bounds of
what is acceptable as free expression and free speech. Your action puts undue controls on these
freedoms. If more and more such firings
occur because of political expediencies, we'll have lost much more than the
temporary "peace of mind" you may have wanted to generate. (I am afraid that, with letters such as
this, your action may not give you that peace.
If it had been for a better cause, I would admire your perseverance, but
not here.)
I hope that
you have a generous mind to realize the mistake of firing Dr. Schmidt and that
you see fit to hire him back.
Sincerely,
Walter L. Borst
Member, American Physical Society and TSAPS