The New York Times reported online on 8 August and in the Sunday print edition on 9 August that in a letter to President Obama, 29 US scientists have praised the Iran nuclear deal. (Engineers signed too, though in this case the Times failed in its usual mindfulness of the scientist–engineer distinction.) News organizations reporting derivatively on the Times’s report include Al-Arabiya, Daily Pakistan, Middle East Online, and Israel’s Arutz Sheva and Haaretz.
The letter makes its case by compressing detailed technical and technopolitical arguments into eight short paragraphs. It begins, “As scientists and engineers with understanding of the physics and technology of nuclear power and of nuclear weapons, we congratulate you and your team on the successful completion of the negotiations in Vienna.” The opening paragraph also asserts that the deal will “advance the cause of peace and security in the Middle East and can serve as a guidepost for future non-proliferation agreements.”
A posting from MIT’s Laboratory for Nuclear Security and Policy observes that “the five authors and 24 co-signers are some of the world’s most knowledgeable experts about nuclear weapons.” It cites in particular Richard Garwin, “a physicist who helped design the world’s first hydrogen bomb [and] served as a science advisor to three presidents, both Democrat and Republican.” Critics will point out that several of the signatories have Democratic Party ties. Six Nobel laureates signed: Philip W. Anderson, Leon N. Cooper, Sheldon L. Glashow, David Gross, Burton Richter, and Frank Wilczek.
Physicists dominate the subdivided signatory list, quoted below verbatim.
Richard L. Garwin, IBM Fellow Emeritus
Robert J. Goldston, Princeton University
R. Scott Kemp, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Rush Holt, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Frank von Hippel, Princeton UniversityAlso signed by:
John F. Ahearne, Director, Ethics Program at Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
Philip W. Anderson, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University
Christopher Chyba, Princeton University
Leon N. Cooper, Brown University
Pierce S. Corden, Former Director, Office of International Security Negotiations, Bureau of Arms Control: Department of State
John M. Cornwall, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA
Sidney D. Drell, Stanford University
Freeman Dyson, Professor Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University
Harold A. Feiveson, Princeton University
Michael E. Fisher, Professor Emeritus, Cornell University and University of Maryland
Howard Georgi, Harvard University
Sheldon L. Glashow, Boston University
Lisbeth Gronlund, Union of Concerned Scientists
David Gross, Professor of Theoretical Physics, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, UCSB
Sigfried S. Hecker, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University
Martin E. Hellman, Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
Ernest Henley, University of Washington
Gregory Loew, Emeritus Deputy Director and Professor, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
C. Kumar N. Patel, Professor Emeritus of Experimental Condensed Matter, UCLA
Burton Richter, Stanford University
Myriam Sarachik, City College of New York, CUNY
Roy F. Schwitters, The University of Texas at Austin
Frank Wilczek, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
David Wright, Union of Concerned Scientists
