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For
immediate release... HUNDREDS
OF PHYSICISTS AND OTHER SCHOLARS DEMAND REINSTATEMENT OF PHYSICIST FIRED FOR
WRITING BOOK More
than 750 scientists and other scholars in a wide range of fields have
condemned the American Institute of Physics for firing Physics Today
magazine staff editor Jeff Schmidt over his book, Disciplined Minds
(Rowman & Littlefield Publishers).
Among the protesters signing letters delivered on 14 January 2002 are
two Nobel Prize winning scientists and more than 500 physicists -- the
largest number of physicists ever to speak out on a freedom-of-expression
issue in the United States. The
protesters have written a flurry of letters demanding that the magazine
reinstate Schmidt, who was fired after 19 years on the job a few days after
officials at Physics Today and the American Institute of Physics,
which publishes the magazine, saw his book.
Disciplined Minds is about the politics of professional work,
and uses the education and employment of physicists to illustrate its
points. The origin of job
dissatisfaction, argues Schmidt, is employers' insistence on exclusive control
over the political aspects of the work, and the subordination of the vision
of those who actually do it. The
details of the case are explained in an appeal to scientists by three
professors of physics and in a statement by two former Physics Today
staff members. (See the appeal
appended below.) The appeal resulted
in a protest letter signed by more than 540 individuals, mainly
physicists. About 100 individuals,
mainly physicists and former Physics Today staff members, drafted
other letters blasting the magazine for its repressive behavior and likewise
demanding Schmidt's reinstatement.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology linguist and social critic Noam
Chomsky helped to solicit signatures on another protest letter, which has
been signed by about 150 scholars and others at institutions across the
country, in a wide variety of fields outside of the sciences. Ironically,
the American Institute of Physics is governed by the American Physical
Society and other physics organizations that often speak out publicly when
dissident physicists outside the United States are punished for expressing
their views. All
of the group and individual letters, along with the names and affiliations of
the more than 750 signers, are posted on the Web at http://disciplined-minds.com. The
protests forced the American Institute of Physics to break its silence and
issue a very revealing public statement, which is posted on the Web at http://disciplined-minds.com
-- along with a response by physicists Talat Rahman of Kansas State
University, George F. Reiter of the University of Houston, Michael A. Lee of
Kent State University, and Denis G. Rancourt of the University of Ottawa. The
protesters include scientists from 34 countries: Argentina, Australia,
Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, England,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, The
Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia,
Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United States, Yugoslavia --
and, in a turn of the table on free-expression, Cuba. Contact:
SpeechRights@aol.com ------------------------- THE
APPEAL... Dear
fellow scientist, As
you may have heard, Physics Today magazine recently gave a very
punishing review to a book written by physicist Jeff Schmidt: The magazine fired him. Jeff
was a staff editor at Physics Today for 19 years -- until his
supervisors saw Disciplined Minds, a thought-provoking critique of
workplace hierarchy and the politically subordinate role of salaried
professionals. The book uses
physicists and physics graduate school to help illustrate points about
professionals and professional training in general. Within
days of learning about his irreverent book, the higher-ups at Physics
Today dismissed Jeff summarily, apparently using the book as an
opportunity to retaliate against him for his workplace activism and to ignore
his widely praised work for the magazine.
Details of Jeff's firing are given in the attached statement
by two former Physics Today staff members. Please
join us in protesting Jeff's dismissal, by adding your name to the attached letter. We will send the letter to Marc H.
Brodsky, Executive Director and CEO of the American Institute of Physics,
which publishes Physics Today, and we will also post it on the Web. To
add your name to the letter, please send an e-mail message to SpeechRights@aol.com. Include your name and an affiliation, such
as your department and institution.
Please ask others to add their names, too. You
can also write directly to Marc Brodsky, at brodsky@aip.org. If you do, please send a copy of your
letter to SpeechRights@aol.com so that it can be posted on the Web. Your
support will make a big difference. Sincerely, Talat
Rahman Fellow
of the American Physical Society University
Distinguished Professor Department
of Physics Kansas
State University George
F. Reiter Professor
of Physics University
of Houston Michael
A. Lee Professor
of Physics Kent
State University 14 January 2002 |
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