David Windisch, Chair of ICU Student Pugwash, writes: "While the global political context has changed during the years since the first Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs in 1957, the movement's main purpose is still the same - to bring together scientists and students from around the world to discuss the ethical and political issues science must face.

"Apart from the main concern about nuclear arms, issues such as the elimination of armed conflicts, or the environment, have also moved onto the agenda of recent Pugwash Conferences.

"Professor Rotblat is, as were Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell, one of the scientists who inaugurated the movement in 1955. Born in Poland in 1908, he was one of the first scientists realising the potential of nuclear fission at the outbreak of the Second World War.

"In 1944 he began his participation in the Manhattan Project in the USA in order to develop the most devastating weapon humanity had ever invented: the atom bomb. When he found out that the Nazis would not be able to develop a similar weapon, and that its main purpose would not be Hitler's defeat, he left the project for moral reasons in the same year.

"Professor Rotblat has always been convinced that scientists should claim responsibility for the consequences of their research, and has often sharply criticised 'remnants of the ivory tower mentality' among the scientific community. Together with the Pugwash Conferences, he was awarded the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize, for his long-standing commitment to the elimination of nuclear arms."

For more information on the Student Pugwash group, visit http://union.ic.ac.uk/pugwash.