As a follow-up of yesterday's post on the very opportune Pomeranchuk prize given to Stan Brodsky, I would like to report here on a funny anecdote Stan related to me today. The anecdote is interesting to all of us who believe the world of physics research is fully trans-national - well, it is, but there is apparently some more work to do to improve the situation further.
The Pomeranchuk prize was announced yesterday by SLAC, but was actually given to Stan last November (in fact it is the 2015 prize). He got invited by ITEP in Moscow to receive it, but he is paid by the US Department of Energy, whose rules prevent employees from traveling to Russia for their work. I was startled to learn this... But it gets more interesting as Stan did go anyway to Russia to receive the prize. Now, the ceremony could not be held at ITEP because for "security reasons" the Russians did not allow Stan inside ITEP. Instead it was held in the Cabinet of Science - a nice venue outside the ITEP premises.

I am not sure what the security issues that prevent foreign scientists from entering ITEP are. But Russians - I mean, the Kurchatov institute which has recently absorbed ITEP - appear serious about this. And in fact Stan in 2012 witnessed an even more striking demonstration of the same. He traveled to Moscow for an invited seminar at ITEP, but the seminar was actually held at a different university, where he was locked in the seminar room together with his audience. As he asked to use the restrooms, his hosts embarassingly denied the request, as the room had been locked for security reasons! This became known as the "Brodsky Gulag".


A report of the situation at ITEP was given by Geoff Brumfiel on Nature here.

So, it appears we have work to do to foster a more transparent and transnational science.