Dear colleagues.
Following the overwhelming responses to the redundancies of Phil
Bunker, Bob McKellar and their colleagues at NRC and the request for a
petition we have set-up an online petition, see text below.
Please sign the petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/nrcp0710/petition.html
to make the dismay this caused in our international scientific
community heard at NRC.
If you are signatory to other petitions or letters in this matter
please do not sign here as it may 'dilute' the significance of this
and the other petitions.
In order to maximise the impact of this online petition you are asked
to provide the following information (my entry as an example):
Name: Eckart Wrede
Email: [log in to unmask]
Title: Dr
Affiliation, Country: Durham University, U.K.
Position: Lecturer in Physical Chemistry
If you are a University Professor please use Prof as your title.
Your email address is required to allow the validation of your
'signatures'. Please use your institutional email address if possible.
Also, please choose the "Available to Petition Author" option so that
your email address is available to us to validate your signatures but
will not appear on the signatories list. We will destroy the list
including email addresses at an appropriate time after the delivery of
the petition to NRC.
We intend to run the petition until Thurday this week (25 Oct 2007).
The petition is addressed to Dr. Pierre Coulombe, the President of the
National Research Council Canada, but we also intend to forward this
petition to:
Dalton McGuinty, Premier of the Province of Ontario (former Biologist)
Dr. Arthur Carty, National Science Advisor to the Prime Minister (former NRC President)
Dan Wayner, Director General of the Steacie Institute (has signed the infamous letter)
Sincerely,
Luis Baņares, Universidad Complutense Madrid, Spain
Hans-Peter Loock, Queen's University, Kingston, Ont., Canada
Eckart Wrede, Durham University, U.K.
----- Petition Text -----
The Future of Fundamental Science at NRC Petition
To Dr. Pierre Coulombe, President of the National Research Council
Canada
It has come to our attention that the National Research Council Canada
has issued "Notices of Surplus Status" to about 100 of its employees.
In particular, the dismissal of the internationally leading molecular
spectroscopists Dr Phil Bunker and Dr Bob McKellar, who have served
the NRC for 42 and 36 years, respectively, has shocked international
scientists working in chemical and molecular physics.
1. We are dismayed by the manner in which the NRC has dismissed these
scientists and employees calling their positions "surplus to
requirements". The wording of these redundancy letters is degrading
and implies that the NRC does not value its employees and their
scientific achievements. These letters have damaged the reputation of
the NRC as an employer seeking to recruit and retain high-calibre
scientists.
We ask the NRC to apologise for this dismal treatment of its
longstanding and loyal employees.
2. As members of the international scientific community we are very
concerned that the NRC intends to withdraw from world-leading
high-resolution spectroscopy. This is a research area which has been
key to the NRC.s international reputation of excellence in research,
particularly through the Steacie and Herzberg Institutes.
High-resolution molecular spectroscopy is still a crucial research
area which underpins fundamental science and applications such as
earth observation and the study of climate change.
We ask the NRC to rethink its withdrawal from fundamental research in
molecular spectroscopy particularly in light of its key importance for
other research areas.
======================================================
Dr Eckart Wrede Lecturer (Physical Chemistry)
University of Durham www.dur.ac.uk/eckart.wrede
Department of Chemistry Phone: +44 (0)191 334 2129
Durham, DH1 3LE, U.K. FAX: +44 (0)191 384 4737
To join or leave the molecular-dynamics-news email list, go to:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/molecular-dynamics-news.html
|
