SUMMARY
COUNCIL MEETING
On August 25-27, right after the Amsterdam Congress, the INES Council met in Driebergen, south-east of Utrecht, the Netherlands. A new Executive Committee was elected: Hartwig Spitzer (Chairman, Germany), Esmat Ezz (Deputy Chairman, Egypt), Jiri Matousek (Treasurer, Czech Republic), Ana María Cetto (Mexico), Ogunlade Davidson (Sierra Leone), David Krieger (USA), Marc Ollivier (France), Ulrike Otto (Student Network representative, Germany) , Valery Petrosyan (Russia), Lars Ryden (Sweden). The next Council meeting is planned to be held in Riga, Latvia, July 25-28, 1997. The 1998 meeting is preliminarily scheduled to be located on the East Coast of the US.
REGIONAL COORDINATORS APPOINTED
INES has now over 70 member organizations and more than 150 personal members. As a consequence Reiner Braun (who also works as the general manager of the German Scientists Initiative Responsibility for Peace) might have occasional difficulties in making active contact with all of you members. The Executive Committee has therefore agreed - in the spirit of the network - on a scheme of shared responsibility for regional membership contact. Each EC member is in charge of contacting personal members and member organizations in their region in order to discuss recent news and matters of mutual concern. The regional coordinators are: Valerij Petrosyan (, email:) for members in the Commomwealth of Independent States (CIS) Lars Ryden for the Baltic Region (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithunania, Poland) Reiner Braun (at the INES office) for Germany, the Benelux states, the UK and Ireland Marc Ollivier for France, Spain, Italy and Greece Jiri Matousek for Central-Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the successor states of former Yugoslavia) Esmat Ezz () for Nothern Africa and the Arabic World Ogunlade Davidson NEW MEMBER ORGANISATIONS
The INES Executive Committee admitted the following organisations to membership at its meeting in Driebergen on August 25, 1996:
- Sociedad Mexicana de Física - Mexican Physical Society This is a professional society, and it is interested in joining the work of INES on nuclear disarmament and on the application of science for peace. Contact: Dr. Jose Luis Moran LOPEZ (President), Departamento de Fisica, 20. piso, Faculdad de Ciencias, UNAM, 04510 Mexico, D.F.,
- Russian Green Cross, Moscow, Russia The Russian Green Cross works on environmental safety and environmental education. It has nine regional chapters/affiliations. Contact: Prof. Sergei Baranovsky, Green Cross Russia, 6/3 Kusnetsky Most Str., Moscow, Russia. Phone:
- The Institute for Chemistry and Technology of Environmental Protection, Faculty of Chemistry, Technical University of Brno, Czechia. The Institute was founded in 1992 and teaches undergraduates general courses in chemistry, but has also designed a special curriculum on "Chemistry and Technology of Environmental Protection". The research activities of the Institute are directed towards air protection, water treatment and purification, waste handling technologies, environmental analysis and monitoring, prevention and liquidation of chemical accidents, recycling and alternative use. The staff, at present numbering 21 full-time and 10 part-time employed teachers and technical assistants, is committed to the strategy of sustainable development. The director, prof. Jiri Matousek, has been active in INES since its beginnings. Contact: Prof. Jiri Matousek, Faculty of Chemistry, Technical University of Brno, Veslarska 230, CZ-637 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
NEW INES PROJECTS
Two new projects emerged in 1996: a) The previous working group on abolition of biological and chemical weapons was divided in two, more focussed groups: - The working group on the abolition of chemical weapons (convened by J. Matousek), and - The INES working group on Biological and Toxin Weapons Control. This group is convened by Iris Hunger and Katherine Nixdorf. Contact: Iris Hunger, Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine, Robert-Roessle-Strasse 10, D-13122 Berlin, Germany. t) One of the workshops at the Amsterdam Congress was the seedling for a new project, "Spiritual Dimensions of Sustainability", which was proposed by G. Emde, H.J. Fischbeck and F. Meyberg (Germany). This project focusses on ethical foundations and basic human attitudes and life styles. The INES Appeal to Engineers and Scientists "Towards Sustainable Societies" calls sustainability a "value-based aim and process". What do we know about the roots of our values? How can we advance the spirit of sustainability in all fields of our private and professional life? Possible objectives and activities of the project are: - To advance international contacts in the INES network. - To start an interreligious dialogue about sustainability. - To organize meetings of interested INES members. As the next international INES Congress probably will not be held until the year 2000, we should start with smaller meetings on a regional level. The participants of those regional events should get linked up with each other in order to form a network. Please contact: Dr. Frank-B. Meyberg, Eberhardstrasse 9, D-22041 Hamburg, Germany. email: CONGRESS 2000 The Executive Committee discussed on 18 January 1997 plans for a Congress 2000. The working title is "Challenges for Science and Engineering at the Turn of the Millenium - Responsibility for a sustainable world "-The congress is to provide retrospective, nalysis of the status quo and vision, with an emphasis on the role of engineers and scientists. We got first signs that the Congress can be held in Sweden. Lars Ryden was asked to chair an ad-hoc preparatory committee together with another personality from Sweden. Next meetings of the Ad-hoc-Committee are tentatively scheduled for 8 June 1997, 14.00-19.00 in Muelheim, Germany and for 29 July 1997 in Stockholm. WORKSHOP ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE CIS INES and the Russian Green Cross are planning a workshop with the title "Regional Peculiarities of Sustainable Development", to be held in Vladimir near Moscow on June 27-30, 1997. The number of participants is expected to be 60. Participants can stay on and take part in a Conference on Environmental Education in Universities (June 30 to July 4), organised by the Russian Green Cross. INES members are invited to participate and contribute. Contact: Prof. V. Petrosyan, Moscow, Fax: +7-095-939 5546, email: , and R. Braun at the Network Office.
REGIONAL SCIENTIFIC MEETING IN HUNGARY
In the last few years the societies of Eastern Central Europe have undergone radical changes. At present, pressing economic and social problems make global questions of sustainable development frequently neglected or not appropriately dealt with. In order to avoid a crisis in the countries with emerging democracies, innovative and activity enhancing forms of citizens' participation should be identified, developed and practised. In order to create an opportunity to discuss these questions in an East Central European context, a proposal has been put forward to organise a regional scientific forum with the title "Sustainable Development and Democracy, A Solution for East Central Europe?" at Lake Balaton on 12-15 September, 1997, as a follow-up of the Amsterdam Congress. The meeting, expected to attract some 60 participants from East and Central Europe, Western Europe and Hungary. INES members are invited to participate and contribute. Contact: Miklos Barabas, European House, 1395 Budapest 62, POB 440, Hungary