Discussion of the agenda of the upcoming Symposium on the History of Particle Physics at CERN
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Europe/Zurich
40/R-D10 (CERN)
Description
The meeting will discuss how to proceed following the exchange with the organizing committee of the 4th International Symposium on the History of Particle Physics at CERN in November (https://indico.cern.ch/event/1480892/overview) about the issue that all the talks representing developments of particle physics in Eastern Europe are given by Russian researchers which titles which are very Russia-centric. Such approach reinforces the Russian government's policy of appropriation of achievements and undermining of contributions of non-Russian scientists from other former Soviet republics.
Surveys
Is it acceptable that only scientists from Russia or the Russian diaspora present Soviet Union and Eastern European contributions at the Symposium on the History of Particle Physics at CERN?
Present: A. Usachov, D. Grydzo, I. Berezhetsa, I. Yakymenko, M. Mikestikova, V. Lukashenko, D. Tymoshyn, A. Modenko, T. Hryn'ova
Points to remember / questions to address:
- Members of the committee do not seem to be trained historians might not have a scientific approach to a complex geopolitical situation at a time, which is only being understood now.
- All the Eastern European particle physics contributions to CERN were forced to be channeled through JINR, with 'Russia' currently getting all the credit for it. Thus JINR and its representatives can not serve as a neutral alternative.
- If titles/content of the talks is not modified and our concerns are only presented as comments there is no record left of them. This is an issue if the event is meant to define how we see community history of this period for next decades. Thus current agenda eliminates big part of East European contribution. Need to have a fair presentation.
- Why cover 'Russian' contributions now during the ongoing war, if it was not addressed in any of the previous meetings? Why call it "Russian" if it starts in 1960? Why can not a neutral scientists can be found to do it?
Followup action items:
- to contact James Gillies (Secretary), CERN to schedule an in person meeting to explain concerns raised in our letter and why we are not satisfied with the reply. [Email sent 23/07 - discussing meeting in the end of September, which is probably too late]
- to write to CERN DG [Email sent 24/07. Reply "it would not be appropriate for me to interfere with this process"]
- to draft letter to meeting donors to make them aware of our concerns
- to follow up with ACCU representatives from other Eastern European countries to check if we as a community could recommend any alternative experts on history of particle physics of that period for the existing three talks or any additional talks. [email sent 25/07]
- to probe potential support to boycott the event if no changes to the agenda are made [survey to be circulated on Tue 29/07]
- to raise issue in ACCU on August 26th.
- to encourage research/publications on history of particle physics in Ukraine and more broader in Soviet Union. Interesting question to cover how place of birth or nationality played a role in Soviet physics. From EPJH editors: "There has been some good historical literature on antisemitism in Soviet physics, but I have indeed not seen any study on what it meant for Gamow, Bronstein or Ivanenko (and their research and academic careers) to be Ukrainian. If you know anyone who could write such an article, please encourage them to do so."
Our proposal:
(1) to change the talk titles to remove the focus on Russia and make them about the entire Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc
(2) to reassign these presentations to scientists from other East-European countries.
There are minutes attached to this event.
Show them.