Wayne R. Lundberg

Physical Scientist

United States Air Force

4 September 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:

As physicists and other scientists concerned about freedom of expression in the science community, we were troubled to learn of your dismissal of Jeff Schmidt, who had been an articles editor at Physics Today magazine for over 19 years.

As we understand it, you fired Jeff after you saw his book, Disciplined Minds, and in particular after you learned that Jeff had used some of his spare time at the office for critical writing about education and employment in physics and other fields.

While we don't unconditionally agree with Jeff's views about the situation of physicists and other salaried professionals, and do not expect you to, we believe that free debate within the physics community is healthy. We expect you to encourage it, not stifle it, especially because physicists are known for speaking out when physicists internationally are punished for expressing their views. Your actions as head of the American Institute of Physics help to shape society's view of the physics community. We urge you to reconsider your decision, and offer to reinstate Jeff as an editor at Physics Today.

We ask that you publish this letter in Physics Today, to bring our concerns to the attention of the wider physics community.

Sincerely,

Wayne R. Lundberg

(Opinions are my own; my affiliation is given for identification purposes only.)

p.s. Mr. Schmidt's concerns about the situation of many physicists and salaried professionals are clearly legitimate and only exacerbated by your actions. Although I don't expect that his reinstatement would wholly remedy the problem, as it is evidently present in many organizations including my own, I certainly support his effort to shed light on the issue.

As CEO of AIP (in many ways entrusted with leading and moderating the discourse of scientific concerns) I would expect a more mature, reasoned, response to situations involving an employee's constitutional rights and efforts to improve working conditions. One thing is certain — the collective understanding of physics cannot be harmed, but only improved, by the open expression of ideas. The key lies in how we evaluate and verify the legitimacy of new ideas — not based on professional prejudices, neither the currently favored line of scientific inquiry, but on a coherent portrayal of the facts.

I urge you to ignore your corporate lawyers and do what is right — reinstate Jeff Schmidt. Perhaps it is also time to consider resigning. I would consider unsubscribing from Physics Today, in protest, but that option is not open since the magazine subscription is included in my APS dues; nor reasonable since Physics Today provides beneficial insight and amalgamation of journal articles — through the work of capable editors such as Dr. Schmidt.