Vil Sultanovich Mirzayanov

Vil Mirzayanov, a Russian chemist, was imprisoned in 1993 after publishing articles that revealed illegal chemical weapons experimentation in Russia. He lost his job at the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology, where he had worked for 26 years. He was released from prison in March 1994 after U.S. scientists initiated a major campaign on his behalf. Vil Mirzayanov currently lives in the United States.

AAAS awards and honors:

• AAAS Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award, 1995.

  For his keen sense of social and scientific responsibility demonstrated by his revealing the secret development of dangerous chemical weapons in Moscow, an exemplary action for which he subsequently was fired from his job, arrested, and imprisoned.

• Science and Human Rights Reception, 1995.