Board Statement on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Current Board Statement

June 24, 2022

Statement by the Board of Directors on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

The American Physical Society (APS) condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine and is gravely concerned about all people whose safety and security have been jeopardized by the attacks. Guided by the APS Mission to “advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics for the benefit of humanity. . .”1 and to limit damage to the global scientific cooperation that is critical for advancing science and improving the lives of all people,2 APS is taking action by:

  1. suspending programmatic activities with Russian institutions and abiding by all sanctions imposed by the United States
  2. supporting individual physicists adversely affected by the invasion, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, location, or residence.

APS actions include, to the extent allowed by law:

  • providing membership, meeting, and journal access to any physicist whose life has been disrupted by the invasion;
  • expanding APS programs that support scientist-to-scientist collaboration, with special emphasis on students and early-career scientists;
  • providing matching funds for any of its membership units that wish to make donations to certain organizations that are supporting Ukrainian physicists;3
  • continuing to publish papers that meet the editorial criteria submitted by scientists from all countries.

This approach upholds the Society’s Statements4 and its long-held tradition of supporting open dialogue and promoting cooperation among scientists throughout the world.5

APS underscores the principles expressed in the APS Statement on the International Nature of Science and Scientific Cooperation, including its commitment to: “take action in support of the human and professional rights of scientists in all countries” and to “encourage scientists to take conscientious and responsible action to protect those rights and to further international scientific cooperation.”

References

1 APS Mission Statement

2 APS Statement 21.1: The International Nature of Science and International Scientific Cooperation

3 APS Response to the Invasion of Ukraine; Unit Donation Form – Ukraine Relief

4 APS Statement 02.5: Against the Call to Boycott Israeli Scientists

5 Editorial, Physics Today, March 1980, by APS President Hermann Feshbach “Let’s not boycott Soviet physicists”