Science and human rights are inextricably linked in many ways. In 1913 former academy member Albert Einstein said in an address to the California Institute of Technology:

It is not enough that you should understand about applied science in order that your work may increase man's blessings. Concern for man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors.

The creation of a Committee on Human Rights by the National Academy of Sciences in 1976 was but the formalization of a long-standing concern of the academy about humanitarian issues.

For many years, academy officers have taken private action through fellow scientists, sister academies, and research councils throughout the world in behalf of threatened colleagues. In the 1950s, the academy helped find positions in the United States for Hungarian scientists who had fled their country. In 1966, it provided assistance to Argentine students whose education was interrupted by the closing of the University of Buenos Aires by finding institutions in the United States where they could study.

It is noteworthy that a large number of the academy's roughly 1,500 members are foreign born; many fled their countries of birth because of abuses inflicted upon them and their families by repressive governments. Many of those scientists have gone on to make outstanding contributions to the science and welfare of their nation of adoption, the United States of America.

In 1976, the council of the academy decided to institutionalize its human rights efforts by establishing the Committee on Human Rights. This publication is the culmination of more than 10 years of commitment to human rights by the committee.

These efforts have attracted the involvement and dedication of an increasing number of members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and this academy. These members are not human rights experts; they simply care about the plight of their colleagues and are willing to speak out firmly against repression, again and again.

The academy members who have served on the committee over the years have done so with dedication, determination, and a great sense of purpose and humanity. We owe them our respect and our deep appreciation for carrying out this important and often frustrating work. In particular, I would like to mention the two past chairs of the committee, Robert Kates and Lipman Bers, and the current chair, Eliot Stellar. It is through their efforts that the committee has endured and matured. All three of these scientists collaborated in making the symposium a reality and a major success. All three were also involved in the academywide effort to gain the release from prison of Juan Luís González of Chile, Ismail Mohamed of South Africa, and Yuri Orlov of the Soviet Union, the main speakers at the symposium.

I would also like to express the deep appreciation of the members of the National Academy of Sciences to the foundations that have seen fit to supplement the academy's financial contributions to the work of the Committee on Human Rights. Their grants have made possible the sustained work of the committee. Thus, I thank the Ford Foundation, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, the New-Land Foundation, the J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Scherman Foundation, and the Stichting European Human Rights Foundation.

More than 700 people attended the symposium. Most of them were academy members. It was the main event of the first day of the academy's 124th annual meeting—a very real indication of the continuing importance given and seriousness attached to human rights issues by the officers and members of the academy. In fact, over the years, our human rights committee has come to symbolize the very conscience of the academy. It is a reflection of our hope to contribute, even in a small way, to the ongoing struggle against violations of human rights around the world—a struggle for which many of our foreign colleagues have sacrificed their livelihoods and for which some have paid with their lives.

The symposium was an inspiring event. Many of those who attended told me later that it was one of the most emotionally moving and thought-provoking events they had ever attended. It is our hope, and my personal belief, that the issues examined in this publication will be of value—not only as a record of the symposium for those who attended, but also for those concerned individuals, students, scientists, human rights activists, and members of government everywhere who care about those whose human rights are being violated.

Frank Press, President

National Academy of Sciences