Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, Australian group

Description

Agent TypeOrganisationHistoryThe Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs commenced in Pugwash, Nova Scotia in Canada in 1957, following the Einstein-Russell manifesto on the need to avoid war in a nuclear age, signed by 11 eminent scientists and announced to international reporters in London on 9 July 1955. The conferences led to the establishment of a trans-national organisation, with national groups and networks. The Australian group seems to have been active from at least 1962 culminating in the South East Asian Regional Pugwash Conference which was held at International House at the University of Melbourne in 1967, with Huntly Gordon Higgins as the Chairperson and international guests. The Melbourne Pugwash Symposium continued throughout the 1960s and 1970s and other groups were active in several states but the Australian group seems to have faltered by the early 1980s, although Higgins still coordinated financial contributions by the Australian group to the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, receiving circulars, statements and correspondence through to the end of the 1990s. Several Australian scientists including Higgins attended a number of the international conferences. Other prominent Australian members included Mark Oliphant. Rosemary Howard carried out research on the Australian group in the 1970s for a Masters thesis on Science and Society at the University of Melbourne, including a survey intended for Australian members. In 2015 there was no contact listed on the Pugwash website for the Australian group.

Accession

[2015.0045] CORRESPONDENCE AND PAPERS OF HUNTLY GORDON HIGGINS RELATING TO CSIRO AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF SCIENCE

Dates

Date1962-1999

University of Melbourne Archives

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Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, Australian group