Melba Phillips, FAS Co-founder

Physicist Melba Phillips, among the last of a vanishing generation of activist scientists who founded the Federation of American Scientists and fought the political battles of the early cold war, died in November.

A 1947 policy statement on "military secrecy and security" that she co-authored for the FAS leadership complained that the personnel security practices of the Atomic Energy Commission were "extra-legal, arbitrary, and often subversive of every right of the individual in a democracy" (quoted by Jessica Wang, American Science in an Age of Anxiety, p. 157).

FAS in its early years was sharply divided between liberal anticommunists, who eventually became dominant, and popular front liberals. Dr. Phillips was among the latter.

In 1952, she was summoned to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on internal security, but she refused to answer questions. She was subsequently fired from her teaching position at Brooklyn College. In 1987, the College formally apologized to her for its actions. (From FAS Secrecy News)