Security policies at national labs, monitoring foreign students are topics at public forum

Washington, DC - October 12, 2000 - Top researchers, security experts and members of the Asian-American community will address closer monitoring of researchers and students from "sensitive" countries in a public forum sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) on Thursday, October 19.

The public discussions will focus on two areas of significant public concern:

• Several reports document that Asian and Asian-American scientists are avoiding jobs at U.S. weapon laboratories, particularly Los Alamos, New Mexico, because they claim that researchers of Asian descent have been harassed and systematically passed over for promotions due to their ethnicity. The treatment of Asian scientists in the laboratories has been a sensitive issue for some time, but it has been especially pronounced recently following Dr. Wen Ho Lee's arrest and the resulting increased security measures directed at scientists from certain countries.
• In the academic community, considerable controversy surrounds the recommendation of the National Commission on Terrorism Report that the INS monitor what foreign students study at U.S. universities. The report's proposal would extend to universities nationwide an existing INS program that is now in its pilot phase, the Coordinated Interagency Partnership Regulating International Students (CIPRIS).

WHEN: Thursday, October 19, 2000 -- 8:30 a.m. - 10:15 a.m., "The National Commission on Terrorism Report: Impact on Foreign Students and Minorities." 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., "Security Policies at National Labs: The Impact on Science and Scientists." 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m., Open discussion.

WHERE: AAAS Auditorium, 1200 New York Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005

Speakers for the session on the National Commission on Terrorism Report and its impacts include:

• Mary Good, Venture Capital Investors, AAAS President, and panel chair.
• Victor C. Johnson, Associate Exec. Director for Public Policy, NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
• Catheryn D. Cotton, Director, International Office of Duke University (Duke University is a member of the pilot phase of the CIPRIS system).

• Nelson Kiang, Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, Member AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, and panel chair.
• Manvendra K. Dubey, Chair, Asian American Diversity Working Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
• Stephen Younger, Associate Laboratory Director for Nuclear Weapons, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
• Johnathan Medalia, National Defense Specialist, Congressional Research Service.
• Daniel Poneman, Senior Advisor to the Baker-Hamilton Review of Certain Security Issues at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Partner, Hogan & Harston.