Science without borders

Abstract

Quantum information is a hot subject around the world, and many Iranian scientists and students are active or interested in the field; however, their mobility is constrained by financial and political considerations such as difficulties in obtaining visas. With those concerns in mind, Vahid Karimipour of Sharif University of Technology and I decided to plan a major international conference in Iran, capped at 100 participants, with a significant fraction of them coming from other countries. The first International Iran Conference on Quantum Information (IICQI) was held 7–10 September 2007. A successful international conference requires a local base of respected experts in the field, an effective local organizing committee, excellent conference facilities, financial support, and a critical mass of students and faculty in the region who would attend. Those basic requirements were met by having an enthusiastic, energetic team of organizers, but a conference in Iran posed unique challenges—preconceptions and politics—that also had to be faced. In the West, Iran is constantly in the news because of its nuclear program, the 2006 Iran-hosted conference that questioned the Holocaust, and the Iranian seizure of British sailors and marines shortly before the conference deadline, not to mention the seething insurgencies in the neighboring countries of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. In addition, Iran and the US do not have diplomatic relations, although Americans can obtain visas to go to Iran. Despite those problems, Iran has hosted successful physics conferences—for example, one on strings and another on cosmology, both held last year. Also last year Iran was the host for the highly successful 38th International Physics Olympiad. Thus we were optimistic that our proposed conference would be successful. In my view, the complicated politics between Iran and the West is a compelling reason to support conferences in that country. Science is driven by a shared desire to discover the laws and nature of the universe in a way that transcends politics, local culture, race, creed, and gender. In a world divided, a scientific conference reminds us through our shared discourse that we are all human and all fundamentally the same on our journey of discovery. A scientific conference provides the opportunity for local participants to learn from, and be inspired by, foreign scientists who share their time and insights to globalize the scientific endeavor. My views are not universally shared, however. Science and technology are separated by a nebulous boundary. Some would argue that scientific discourse, at least in strategically important fields such as nuclear physics, quantum information, and nanotechnology, should be constrained so as not to support technological advancement in unfriendly nations and to prevent the export of intellectual capital. I believe, however, that the majority of physicists would accept sharing knowledge that is or will be published in openly available peer-reviewed scientific journals and proceedings; a scientific conference dedicated to discussing such openly available knowledge really should not be controversial. With those considerations in mind, Vahid and I planned the conference, greatly assisted by his student Laleh Memarzadeh Esfahani and a postdoctoral fellow in my group in Calgary, Ali Tayefeh Rezakhani, and with indispensable support and guidance from numerous other individuals. To minimize visa complications and to maximize the appeal of the location, the conference was held at Kish University on beautiful Kish Island in the Persian Gulf. The island is a “free zone,” which means that it does not require visitors to have visas issued in advance. Kish Island is easily reached via several daily