Thinking in New Ways: Youth, Responsibility and Science

Report of the Swiss Student Pugwash National Conference
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, 7-9 April 2000

SWISS Student Pugwash held its first ever national conference, from 7-9 April, 2000 at CERN in Geneva. Eva Haden and Shahnaz Radjy, president and treasurer respectively of Swiss Student Pugwash, organized the event, which drew some participants.

The conference opened with remarks from Prof. Jean-Henri Stroot, President of the Board of the Geneva International Peace Research Institute, and Dr. Gert Harigel, senior professor emeritus at CERN.

In his talk, Comment et Pourquoi Pugwash?, Prof. Stroot focused on the social responsibility of scientists, tracing developments from the Manhattan Project of 1941-45 to the Russell-Einstein Manifesto of 1955 to the birth of Pugwash in Nova Scotia in 1957. Dr. Harigel recounted how the danger and threat of nuclear warfare evolved in the second half of the 20th century, and what international groups of scientists such as Pugwash have done to support arms control treaties and the ultimate abolition of nuclear weapons.

The conference had four separate Working Groups:

1. Weapons of Mass Destruction
2. The Environment
3. Development, and
4. Ethics, Science and Technology.

After meeting as working groups, each delivered a report to the conference plenary session.

During the conference, there was a panel discussion on the topic, "The Future of Swiss Student Pugwash," chaired by Alex Neil (International School of Geneva), while the closing plenary speech was given by Dr. Martin Kaplan, former Secretary-General of Pugwash.

A full report of the conference is available on the website of Swiss Student Pugwash, www.student-pugwash.org/swiss.