The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an

international organization An international organization or international organisation (see spelling differences), also known as an intergovernmental organization or an international institution, is a stable set of norms and rules meant to govern the behavior of states a ...

that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of

armed conflict War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regul ...

and to seek solutions to global security threats. It was founded in 1957 by Joseph Rotblat and

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, a ...

Pugwash, Nova Scotia Pugwash is an incorporated village in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada, located on the Northumberland Strait at the mouth of the Pugwash River. It had a population of 746 as of the 2021 census. The name Pugwash is derived from the Mi' ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

, following the release of the Russell–Einstein Manifesto in 1955. Rotblat and the Pugwash Conference jointly won the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...

in 1995 for their efforts on

nuclear disarmament Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: *Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics * Nuclear space * Nuclea ...

.Russell's exclusion is explained because the Nobel Prizes are never awarded posthumously. International Student/Young Pugwash groups have existed since founder

Cyrus Eaton Cyrus Stephen Eaton Sr. (December 27, 1883 – May 9, 1979) was a Canadian-American investment banker, businessman and philanthropist, with a career that spanned seventy years. For decades Eaton was one of the most powerful financiers in the ...

's death in 1979.

Origin of the Pugwash Conferences

The Russell–Einstein Manifesto, released July 9, 1955, called for a conference for scientists to assess the dangers of

weapons of mass destruction A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natu ...

(then only considered to be

nuclear weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

, an industrialist and philanthropist, offered on July 13 to finance and host the conference in the town of his birth,

. This was not taken up at the time because a meeting was planned for India, at the invitation of Prime Minister

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian Anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India du ...

. With the outbreak of the

Suez Crisis The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, also called the Tripartite Aggression ( ar, العدوان الثلاثي, Al-ʿUdwān aṯ-Ṯulāṯiyy) in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel,Also known as the Suez War or 1956 Wa ...

the Indian conference was postponed.

Aristotle Onassis Aristotle Socrates Onassis (, ; el, Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης, Aristotélis Onásis, ; 20 January 1906 – 15 March 1975), was a Greek-Argentinian shipping magnate who amassed the world's largest privately-owned shipping fleet and wa ...

offered to finance a meeting in

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

instead, but this was rejected. Eaton's former invitation was taken up. The first conference was held at what became known as Thinkers' Lodge in July 1957 in Pugwash,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. Twenty-two scientists attended the first conference: * seven from the United States: David F. Cavers,

Paul M. Doty Paul Mead Doty (June 1, 1920 – December 5, 2011) was Mallinckrodt Professor of Biochemistry at Harvard University, specializing in the physical properties of macromolecules and strongly involved in peace and security policy issues. Biograph ...

, Hermann J. Muller, Eugene Rabinowitch, Walter Selove, Leó Szilárd,

Victor Frederick Weisskopf Victor Frederick "Viki" Weisskopf (also spelled Viktor; September 19, 1908 – April 22, 2002) was an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist. He did postdoctoral work with Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli, and Niels B ...

* three from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

: Alexander M. Kuzin ( Александр М. Кузин),

Dmitri Skobeltsyn Dmitri Vladimirovich Skobeltsyn (russian: Дмитрий Владимирович Скобельцын) (November 24, 1892 in Saint Petersburg – November 16, 1990) was a Soviet physicist, academician of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (1946), He ...

, Alexander V. Topchiev ( Александр В. Топчиев) * three from Japan: Iwao Ogawa, Shinichiro Tomonaga,

Hideki Yukawa was a Japanese theoretical physicist and the first Japanese Nobel laureate for his prediction of the pi meson, or pion. Biography He was born as Hideki Ogawa in Tokyo and grew up in Kyoto with two older brothers, two older sisters, and two yo ...

* two from the UK: Cecil F. Powell, Joseph Rotblat * two from Canada:

Brock Chisholm George Brock Chisholm (18 May 1896 – 4 February 1971) was a Canadian psychiatrist, medical practitioner, World War I veteran, and the first director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO). He was the 13th Canadian Surgeon General and ...

, John S. Foster * one each from Australia ( Mark Oliphant), Austria ( Hans Thirring), China (

Zhou Peiyuan Zhou Peiyuan (; August 28, 1902 – November 24, 1993) was a Chinese theoretical physicist and politician. He served as president of Peking University, and was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Born in Yixing, Jiangsu, ...

), France ( Antoine M. B. Lacassagne), and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

(

Marian Danysz Marian Danysz (March 17, 1909 – February 9, 1983) was a Polish physicist, Professor of Physics at Warsaw University. Son of Jan Kazimierz Danysz. In 1952, he co-discovered with Jerzy Pniewski Jerzy Pniewski (June 1, 1913 – June 16, 1 ...

). Cyrus Eaton, Eric Burhop, Ruth Adams, Anne Kinder Jones, and Vladimir Pavlichenko also were present. Many others were unable to attend, including co-founder

, for health reasons. From the Soviet Union, Mikhail Ilyich Bruk (russian: Михаил Ильич Брук; 1923

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

- 2009 Jurmala) attended as an English-Russian technical translator. Later,

Armand Hammer Armand Hammer (May 21, 1898 – December 10, 1990) was an American business manager and owner, most closely associated with Occidental Petroleum, a company he ran from 1957 until his death. Called "Lenin's chosen capitalist" by the press, ...

stated, "Mike's KGB."

Organizational structure

Pugwash's "main objective is the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical and biological) and of war as a social institution to settle international disputes. To that extent, peaceful resolution of conflicts through dialogue and mutual understanding is an essential part of Pugwash activities, that is particularly relevant when and where nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction are deployed or could be used." "The various Pugwash activities (general conferences, workshops, study groups, consultations and special projects) provide a channel of communication between scientists, scholars, and individuals experienced in government, diplomacy, and the military for in-depth discussion and analysis of the problems and opportunities at the intersection of science and world affairs. To ensure a free and frank exchange of views, conducive to the emergence of original ideas and an effective communication between different or antagonistic governments, countries and groups, Pugwash meetings as a rule are held in private. This is the main modus operandi of Pugwash. In addition to influencing governments by the transmission of the results of these discussions and meetings, Pugwash also may seek to make an impact on the scientific community and on public opinion through the holding of special types of meetings and through its publications." Officers include the president and secretary-general. Formal governance is provided by the Pugwash Council, which serves for five years. There is also an executive committee that assists the secretary-general.

Jayantha Dhanapala Jayantha Dhanapala ( si, ජයන්ත ධනපාල; born 30 December 1938) is a Sri Lankan diplomat who serves as member of the Board of Sponsors of ''The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'' and was a governing board member of the Stockho ...

is the current president. Paolo Cotta-Ramusino is the current Secretary General. The four Pugwash offices, in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

(international secretariat),

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

, and Washington D.C., provide support for Pugwash activities and serve as liaisons to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

and other international organizations. There are approximately fifty national Pugwash groups, organized as independent entities and often supported or administered by national academies of science. The International Student/Young Pugwash groups works with, but are independent from, the international Pugwash group.

Contributions to international security

Pugwash's first fifteen years coincided with the Berlin Crisis, the

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United S ...

, the

Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...

, and the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. Pugwash played a useful role in opening communication channels during a time of otherwise-strained official and unofficial relations. It provided background work to the Partial Test Ban Treaty (1963), the Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968), the

Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty or ABMT) (1972–2002) was an arms control treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems used in defending areas against ballisti ...

(1972), the Biological Weapons Convention (1972), and the

Chemical Weapons Convention The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), officially the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, is an arms control treaty administered by the Organisation for ...

(1993). Former

US Secretary of Defense The United States secretary of defense (SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high ranking member of the federal cabinet. DoDD 5100.1: Enclosure 2: a The s ...

Robert McNamara has credited a backchannel Pugwash initiative (code named PENNSYLVANIA) with laying the groundwork for the negotiations that ended the Vietnam War.

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Com ...

admitted the influence of the organisation on him when he was leader of the

. In addition, Pugwash has been credited with being a groundbreaking and innovative "transnational" organization and a leading example of the effectiveness of Track II diplomacy. During the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

, it was claimed that the Pugwash Conference became a front conference for the Soviet Union, whose agents often managed to weaken Pugwash critique of USSR and instead concentrate on blaming the United States and the West. In 1980, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence received a report that the Pugwash Conference was used by Soviet delegates to promote Soviet propaganda. Joseph Rotblat said in his 1998 Bertrand Russell Peace Lecture that there were a few participants in the conferences from the Soviet Union "who were obviously sent to push the party line, but the majority were genuine scientists and behaved as such". Following the end of the Cold War, the traditional Pugwash focus on decreasing the salience of nuclear weapons and promoting a world free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction addresses the following issue areas: *Nuclear stability, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation: 1. Traditional Nuclear Disarmament, US-Russia nuclear disarmament, nuclear weapons in Europe; 2. Nuclear weapons and nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, Israeli nuclear weapons, Iranian nuclear program, proposal for a Middle Eastern zone free of weapons of mass destruction, Arab attitudes towards nuclear weapons and nuclear proliferation; 3. India and Pakistan nuclear relations, the effects of US India nuclear deal; 4. North Korea. *Regional security in regions where nuclear weapons exist or risks of nuclear proliferation are significant: 1. Middle East—general issues, the impact of the Palestinian problem and its relevance in the Arab world, the consequences of the so-called Arab spring and the growth of the Islamic movements and parties, Arab-Iranian, Arab-Israeli and Iran-Israeli relations; 2. South-Central Asia—traditional antagonism between India and Pakistan, the role of terrorist attacks in the worsening of such antagonism, US-Pakistani relations in general. The role of radical movements in Pakistan, reconciliation and peace in Afghanistan, talking to the Taliban (is it possible and how should be done?), Pakistani-Afghan relations. The Pugwash movement has also been concerned with environmental issues and as a result of its 1988 meeting in Dagomys it issued the Dagomys Declaration on Environmental Degradation ().

Nobel Peace Prize

In 1995, fifty years after the bombing of

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

and

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui ...

, and forty years after the signing of the Russell–Einstein Manifesto, the Pugwash Conferences and Joseph Rotblat were awarded the

jointly "for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms." The Norwegian Nobel committee hoped that awarding the prize to Rotblat and Pugwash would "encourage world leaders to intensify their efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons." In his acceptance speech, Rotblat quoted a key phrase from the Manifesto: "Remember your humanity."

International Foundation for Science

From the 1965 Pugwash conference came a recommendation to establish the International Foundation for Science "in order to address the stultifying conditions under which younger faculty members in the universities of developing countries were attempting to do research". The organization gives grants to early-career scientists in low-income countries for work on local water resources and biology.

Secretaries General

* Joseph Rotblat : 1957–1973 * Bernard Feld : 1973–1978 * Martin Kaplan : 1978–1989 * Francesco Calogero : 1989–1997 * George Rathjens : 1997–2002 * Paolo Cotta-Ramusino : 2002–

Pugwash Presidents

As of 2019, 13 individuals have served as Presidents of the Pugwash Conferences. * Earl (Bertrand) Russell, 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature, a founder of the movement, was its natural head in its initial years. The formal office of the presidency was established at the Quinquennial Conference in Ronneby, in 1967. The president's role was to "preside over the Annual Pugwash Conferences and, in addition, between Conferences, to offer his counsel and advice to the members of the Continuing Committee and the Secretary-General, and thereby assist them in the execution of the activities of the Movement." * Sir John Cockcroft, joint recipient of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics for pioneering work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles, was elected as the first president in 1967, though he died suddenly ten days later. * Lord Florey, who shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for extraction of penicillin, was then invited to become president, though he also died within weeks. At that point the Continuing Committee decided to have a rotating presidency for a term of one year, to have that office held by a distinguished person in the country where the annual conference would be held each year. * Francis Perrin (1968), had worked with Frederic Joliot's team to establish in 1939 the possibility of nuclear chain reactions and nuclear energy production.
Mikhail Millionshchikov
(1969), an eminent physicist who later became Speaker of the Russian Parliament. * Eugene Rabinowitch (1970), American biophysicist who worked on the Manhattan Project and was co-author with Leo Szilard of the Franck Report and co-founder in 1945 of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. In September 1970, the Continuing Committee switched back to the initial idea of a permanent office of president, with a five-year term. *

Hannes Alfvén Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén (; 30 May 1908 – 2 April 1995) was a Swedish electrical engineer, plasma physicist and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). He described the class of MHD waves now ...

(1970–1975), recipient of the 1970 Nobel in Physics for work on his theory of magnetohydrodynamics. * Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1976–1988), recipient of the 1964

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances. *

Sir Joseph Rotblat Sir Joseph Rotblat (4 November 1908 – 31 August 2005) was a Polish and British physicist. During World War II he worked on Tube Alloys and the Manhattan Project, but left the Los Alamos Laboratory on grounds of conscience after it became c ...

(1988–1997), physicist, one of the founders of the Pugwash Movement, co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize. * Sir Michael Atiyah (1997–2002), a mathematician, was awarded the 1966 Fields Medal, for his work in developing K-theory. * Prof. M.S. Swaminathan (2002–2007), agricultural scientist, one of the pioneers of the

Green Revolution The Green Revolution, also known as the Third Agricultural Revolution, was a period of technology transfer initiatives that saw greatly increased crop yields and agricultural production. These changes in agriculture began in developed countrie ...

and recipient of the World Food Prize and the UNESCO Gandhi Prize. * Amb. Jayantha Dhanapla (2007–2017), former Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs at the United Nations (1998–2003), and former Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the US (1995–97) and to the UN Office in Geneva (1984–87) * Amb. Sergio Duarte (2017–), former UN Undersecretary for Disarmament Affairs and a retired career diplomat from Brazil

Pugwashites

The Pugwash Conference itself does not have formal membership (although national organisations do). All participants take part in their individual capacities and not as representatives of any organization, institution or government. Anyone who has attended a meeting is considered a "Pugwashite". There are more than 3,500 "Pugwashites" worldwide.

Pugwash Council for the 2007–2012 Quinquennium

*Amb.

(President), former UN Under-Secretary-General *Prof. Paolo Cotta-Ramusino (Secretary General), Professor of Theoretical Physics, University of Milano (Italy) *Amb. (ret.) Ochieng Adala, former Perm Rep of Kenya to the United Nations in New York. *Amb. Sergey Batsanov, Director, Geneva Pugwash, former Rep of the USSR/Russia to CD *Dr. Adele Buckley, fmr VP of Tech, Ontario Centre for Enviro Tech Advancement. *Prof. Francesco Calogero (Fmr Sec Gen), Prof, Theoretical Physics, Univ of Rome "La Sapienza". *Dr. Lynn Eden, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford Univ. *Prof. John Finney, Emeritus Prof of Physics, University College London. *Prof. Galia Golan-Gild, Professor of Govt, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, Israel. *Prof. Karen Hallberg, Prof of Physics, Fellow, Argentine Natl Council, Science & Tech *Dr. Peter Jones, fmr sr Policy Advisor, Sec & Intell Secretariat, Ottawa (PM's Department). *Gen. (ret.) Dr. Mohamed Kadry Said, Head of the Military Studies Unit, Al-Ahram Center *Dr. Mustafa Kibaroglu, Chair of the International Relations, Okan University Tuzla, Turkey *Mr.

Cliff Kupchan Cliff Kupchan is an American political analyst and former government official. He is the chairman of the political risk consulting and advisory firm Eurasia Group, where he specializes in Russia and Iran. Kupchan has been described as a "leading ...

, Director of Europe and Asia of the Eurasia Group, Washington, DC *Mr.

Sverre Lodgaard Sverre Lodgaard is a Norwegian political scientist who has held several senior positions within government and non-governmental organizations, including the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). Lodgaard specializes in peace, fore ...

, former Director, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs *Prof. Saideh Lotfian (Council Chair), Assoc Prof, Political Science, University of Tehran. *Dr. Riad Malki, Min. of Foreign Affairs, Min. of Information, Palestinian Natl Authority. *Amb. Miguel Marin-Bosch, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Mexico. *Gen. (ret.) Talat Masood, former Secretary, Defence Production Division, MOD *Prof. Amitabh Mattoo Professor of International Relations and Member, National Knowledge Commission *Dr. Steven Miller (Chair of Executive Committee), International Security Program of the Belfer Center, Harvard University *Prof. Götz Neuneck, Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy (IFSH), Hamburg. *Dr. Alexander Nikitin, Director of the Center for Political and International Studies *Mr. Niu Qiang, Secretary General, Chinese People's Assoc for Peace and Disarmament *Gen. Pan Zhengqiang, Deputy Chair, China Foundation of International Studies *Acad. Yuri Ryzhov, President, International Engineering University, Moscow *Prof. Ivo Slaus, former Member of the Croatian Parliament *Dr. Mark Byung-Moon Suh, Chair, Corea Trust Fund *Prof. Takao Takahara, Professor of International Politics and Peace Research, Faculty of International Studies, Meiji Gakuin University, Japan *Dr. Bob van der Zwaan, Senior Scientific Researcher, Energy Research Center of The Netherlands

Other Pugwashites

* Syed Azeez Pasha
Ruth Adams
* Raymond Aubrac * Lev Artsimovich *

Frank Barnaby Frank Charles Barnaby (27 September 1927 – 1 August 2020) was the Nuclear Issues Consultant to the Oxford Research Group, a freelance defence analyst, and a prolific author on military technology. He was based in the United Kingdom.

* Ana Maria Cetto *

Carl Djerassi Carl Djerassi (October 29, 1923 – January 30, 2015) was an Austrian-born Bulgarian-American pharmaceutical chemist, novelist, playwright and co-founder of Djerassi Resident Artists Program with Diane Wood Middlebrook. He is best known for his ...

Bernard T. Feld Bernard Taub Feld (December 21, 1919 – February 19, 1993) was a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He helped develop the atomic bomb, and later led an international movement among scientists to banish nuclear wea ...

* Shalheveth Freier * John Holdren *

George Ignatieff Count George Pavlovich Ignatieff, (russian: Георгий Па́влович Игнатьев; December 16, 1913 – August 10, 1989) was a Canadian diplomat. His career spanned nearly five decades in World War II and the postwar period. E ...

Frédéric Joliot-Curie Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie (; ; 19 March 1900 – 14 August 1958) was a French physicist and husband of Irène Joliot-Curie, with whom he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of Induced radioactivity. T ...

* Peter Kapitza * Sergey Kapitsa * Patricia Lindop *

Robert K. Logan __NOTOC__ Robert K. Logan (born August 31, 1939), originally trained as a physicist, is a media ecologist. Career He received from MIT a BS in 1961 and a PhD in 1965 under the supervision of Francis E. Low. After two post-doctoral appointme ...

Robert McNamara Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He remains the ...

Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky Wolfgang Kurt Hermann "Pief" Panofsky (April 24, 1919 – September 24, 2007), was a German-American physicist who won many awards including the National Medal of Science. Early life Panofsky was born in Berlin, Germany to a family of art h ...

Bas Pease Rendel Sebastian "Bas" Pease FRS (2 November 1922 – 17 October 2004) was a British physicist who strongly opposed nuclear weapons while advocating the use of nuclear fusion as a clean source of power. Biography Pease was born at 9 Brunswick ...

* John Charles Polanyi *

Isidor Isaac Rabi Isidor Isaac Rabi (; born Israel Isaac Rabi, July 29, 1898 – January 11, 1988) was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944 for his discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance, which is used in magnetic resonance ima ...

* Martin Rees *

Sherry Rehman Sherry Rehman ( ur, ; born 21 December 1960) is a Pakistani politician, journalist and former diplomat who has been the member of the Senate of Pakistan since 2015. She was the first female Leader of the Opposition in the Senate from March ...

Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for n ...

* M. Shamsher Ali *

Hussain al-Shahristani Hussain Ibrahim Saleh al-Shahristani (born 1942) is an Iraqi politician who served in different cabinet posts, including as Iraq's Minister of Higher Education. Early life and education al-Shahristani was born in 1942 in Karbala, Iraq. He hail ...

Ali Asghar Soltanieh Ali Asghar Soltanieh ( fa, علی‌اصغر سلطانیه, born 1 October 1950) was Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. He served the position from 1982 to 1987 and for a second term in 2006 until 2013. Early ...

* Ivan Supek * Igor Tamm * Herbert York * Victor Weisskopf * Walter Dorn

Legacy

As the birthplace of the Pugwash movement, the Thinkers' Lodge was designated a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being ...

in 2008.

Jubilee Pugwash Conference Astana

The Jubilee 62nd Pugwash Conference devoted to nuclear disarmament was held in

Astana Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, tho ...

, the capital of

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

, in 2017. The conference celebrated the 60th anniversary of the first Pugwash Conference, held in Pugwash, Nova Scotia in 1957. The theme of the conference was "Confronting New Nuclear Dangers." The conference agenda focused on strengthening the nuclear test ban and combating terrorism. The Astana conference working groups included: * Nuclear disarmament and the UN negotiation process to prohibit nuclear weapons * Nuclear non-proliferation, civilian nuclear energy and energy security * Regional Security: Europe and NATO * Regional Security: Middle East * Regional Security: South Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India) * Regional Security: Northeast Asia * Emerging new technologies and security issues (Cyber Security, AI, Robot)

Notes

References

Books

External links

Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

Russia: Russian Pugwash Committee

Canada: Canadian Pugwash Group
-see:
France: Association Française pour le Mouvement Pugwash

*

by Joseph Rotblat in ''Physics Today'', June 2001.

by J.P. Perry Robinson.

(Rome, through 1996 only)

* J. Rotblat, Scientists in the Quest for Peace: A history of the Pugwash Conferences, MIT Press,1972. {{Authority control Anti–nuclear weapons movement International conferences International scientific organizations Organizations awarded Nobel Peace Prizes International nongovernmental organizations International organisations based in Italy Ethics of science and technology International security Organisations based in Rome Non-profit organisations based in Italy Scientific organisations based in Italy Scientific organizations established in 1957 1957 establishments in Canada Buildings and structures in Nova Scotia 1957 in Nova Scotia Existential risk organizations