Continuing Coverage of the Hans Bethe Award Ceremony

Hans Bethe honors Philip Morrison

Philip Morrison has spent a lifetime contributing his extraordinary clarity of thought and unfailing ethical compass to America’s most critical decisions. I am sorry that I cannot join your celebration, but I add my voice to the many others gathered to honor Phil’s many, and continuing, contributions. It’s particularly fitting that the Federation of American Scientists is recognizing his work. Phil and I helped found the organization in 1945 because of our shared belief that scientists had an obligation to participate in the difficult choices that had been forced on our country by extraordinary advances in nuclear physics so vividly demonstrated by the development and use of atomic weapons. The range and complexity of issues hinging on sound scientific advice has increased since that time, even though many of the most troubling technical issues regarding the control of nuclear weapons have been solved. Phil Morrison has been able to bring insight and good sense to an astonishing number of issues.

He has inspired several generations of scientists to understand how they can use their scientific training to participate effectively in public issues. And for 60 years he has helped people without technical backgrounds understand the beauty of new scientific insights and think about their consequences. It is an honor to know him.

Hans A. Bethe co-founded FAS and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967 “for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars.”

Remarks delivered by Frank von Hippel at the Presentation of the FAS Hans A. Bethe Award to Phil Morrison

This may be my last significant act as chairman of the Federation of American Scientists. It would be a great way to end.

Many of us know about Phil Morrison's contributions as an astrophysicist.

Millions know him through his book reviews in Scientific American where he has offered original and engaging perspectives on virtually every subject under the sun.

In addition to his science and public education work, however, Phil has been a leader in the effort to reduce the nuclear danger. He was one of the first to become aware of this danger as a member of the World War II nuclear-weapons development program.

	“Phil was one of the first Americans to walk through the rubble of Hiroshima. Only months later, he co-founded the Federation of American Scientists to institutionalize the scientists’ effort to prevent nuclear war.”

Phil was one of the first Americans to walk through the rubble of Hiroshima. Only months later, he co-founded the Federation of American Scientists to institutionalize the scientists' effort to prevent nuclear war.

Thirty years later, in the 1970s and '80s, Phil was still at it when he co-founded the Boston Study Group which helped create a new generation of activist analysts who laid the basis for the Nuclear-weapons Freeze movement.

Most impressive to me, however, is the example Morrison set during the early 1950s, a period of madness when the decisions were being made to increase the numbers of nuclear weapons from hundreds to tens of thousands and their power from the equivalent of tens of thousands to millions of tons of TNT.

During this time, Phil's patriotism was sometimes impugned but he would not be silenced. I would like to quote one of his responses at the time:

"Out of my whole experience in life, and especially out of the events which culminated in my walking through the rubble of Hiroshima, I have gained the deep conviction that in the true interests of America…it is urgent that some voices speak for peace, even in times of crisis and even in the face of bitter opposition…

"It is not easy to take such a stand, particularly in a world where great-power conflict is the way of international life, without angering many who see in the insistence upon peace a surrender of national interest…

"I know moreover that not all patriotic Americans disagree with my views, though as yet they are shared by only a minority. This is both inescapable and proper; in a democracy ideas may begin with a few, but spread to a majority in time…"

Today, this statement is well worth recalling.

The FAS has taken its time about creating this award.

But Hans Bethe, the grand old man of American physics and nuclear arms control, is still alive and - when I last checked - studying the physics of supernovae in Ithaca.

And Phil Morrison is still ready to speak truth to power.

So it is my honor to present to Phil Morrison the first Hans A. Bethe award.

The inscription is:

"To Philip Morrison for his persistent and infectious conviction that decent people armed with reasoned arguments can prevail."