1950-Nobel Prize laureate C. F. Powell

British physicist and 1950-Nobel Prize in Physics winner C. F. Powell travelled to Romania in 1964 to attend the Executive Committee of the World Federation of Scientific Workers hosted that year by Bucharest.

Cristina Mateescu, 18.10.2024, 14:00

At the end of June 1964, Bucharest would host the executive committee of the World Federation of Scientific Workers, a non-governmental organisation bringing together trade unions and associations from the world of science and technology. C. F. Powell, who was also the president of the federation, travelled to Bucharest to attend the committee and his visit is documented in the Radio Romania archives.
Professor Powell had become well known internationally as an outspoken advocate for the abolition of nuclear weapons and international cooperation between scientists, irrespective of the political alignment of their countries. He had played a major role in the establishment of CERN and, in 1955, had been one of 11 signatories, alongside Bertrand Russell and Alfred Einstein, of a manifesto warning of the dangers of nuclear weapons at a time when the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union was in full swing and fears were growing of a possible nuclear war.
At the time, socialist Romania was itself a strong advocate of peace and international cooperation and disarmament, in particular nuclear disarmament. The country had also begun to distance itself from the Soviet Union and pursue a more independent foreign policy, seeing ties with international scientific bodies as a way to play a more prominent role on the world stage. On a national level, the regime placed great emphasis on scientific and technical education as an engine of economic development.
In a talk to reporters in Bucharest, Professor Powell called on scientists to play a more active role in ensuring that the results of their work are used for peaceful purposes and weighed in on the Romanian general education system of the day.