Jailed for More Than Four Months, Physicist Faces Deportation Threat by Ernie Tretkoff

Inside This Issue NEWSFebruary 2004 Volume 13, No. 2 A Publication of The American Physical Society http://www.aps.org/apsnews Jailed for More Than Four Months, Physicist Faces Deportation Threat By Ernie Tretkoff In what he describes as a Kafkaesque nightmare, Branislav Djordjevic, a Serbian physicist and software engineer, recently spent over four months in jail in Virginia for an inadvertent immigration violation. Though he was released on bond in late December, he still faces possible deportation. APS leaders and its Committee on International Freedom of Scien- tists (CIFS) have written letters to immigration authorities on his behalf and continue to support his case, Free WYP Poster Inside but the outcome remains uncertain. Included in this month’s APS News is a poster advertising the Djordjevic, 48, came to the US World Year of Physics, which will take place in 2005. But it’s not from Yugoslavia in April 1991. Then early—there is good reason to display it in 2004. The whole idea of a PhD candidate in physics in the World Year of Physics is to get the word out about the impor- Belgrade, he planned to spend a se- tance and excitement of physics to the general public. And the only mester as a visiting scholar at Photo Credit: Ernie Tretkoff people who can do that are the members of the physics community, Michigan State University, working At home after his release from prison, Branislav Djordjevic holds his son Marko, who have to begin planning in 2004 if the effort is to succeed. with Michael Thorpe. while his wife Dragana, his daughter Milica, and Dragana’s uncle look on. The poster is attractive, and worth putting up for that reason alone. Soon after his arrival in the US, But its main purpose is to remind our members, whether they are in war broke out in Yugoslavia. industry, universities, or national labs, to participate in the 2005 cel- Djordjevic had been politically semiconductors. He developed a wife, Dragana, (whom he met in ebration. Much more information, and suggestions for how to active against Milosevic, and learned computer model of the material that Yugoslavia and married in the US), participate, are available at the WYP web site, www.physics2005.org. that military police had raided his was “the biggest model at the time, their two children, both of whom are home in Belgrade. Friends warned and still attracts a lot of attention,” US citizens, and Dragana’s disabled him not to return. With the help of he said. uncle, also a US citizen. an immigration lawyer in Michigan, After completing his PhD in 1996, In May 2002, Djordjevic was he filed for political asylum in the he went to work for a small com- granted an approval notice for an INSIDE THE BELTWAY: US. Djordjevic remained at Michi- puter software company in H1-B visa, which would have been gan State, studying amorphous Michigan, and then moved to the valid through 2004, but his former A Washington Analysis diamond, a carbon-based material Washington, DC area to accept a job attorneys never followed procedures that has properties similar to dia- as a telecommunications software for him to receive the visa. Verizon mond but is cheaper to produce and specialist with Verizon. also sponsored Djordjevic for a green Holding the Reins of Power is useful in many industries, includ- He bought a house in Falls card, and he was in the process of ing automobiles, razor blades, and Church, VA, and lived there with his See DEPORTATION on page 2 Doesn’t Mean You’re in Control By Michael S. Lubell, APS Director of Public Affairs Amy Flatten is New APS Director of It was supposed to be using parliamentary ma- International Affairs a slam dunk. The Repub- neuvers and filibusters to licans controlled the tie up legislation, block Amy Flatten, formerly with the beyond the scientific disciplines of Advisor. As OSTP’s lead on US- House, the Senate and the several key judicial ap- Office of Science and Technology her fiber optic PhD research to Russian scientific relations, she par- White House. And Presi- pointments and hold up Policy (OSTP), has joined the APS manage a breadth of international ticularly focused upon US-Russian dent Bush was riding selected Executive Branch as its new Director of International S&T initiatives involving govern- physics cooperation, where she pro- high after the March in- appointments. They suc- Affairs. ment, academia, and industry on moted new opportunities for vasion of Iraq toppled ceeded in their mischief Flatten begins her new position behalf of the President’s Science collaborative research and worked Saddam Hussein with few because Republicans held February 1, 2004, replacing with diverse government repre- American fatalities. a mere two seat advantage Irving Lerch, who established the sentatives at all levels to remove Washington was poised for a and, more often than not, Society’s international efforts obstacles to establishing a Memo- GOP Trifecta: getting the could not muster the 3/5 super ma- more than ten years ago and randum of Understanding in High President’s budget passed on time jority need to close off debate. retired in December [see APS Energy and Nuclear Physics. Her and intact, enacting long-awaited At the start of the session, con- NEWS, January 2004]. Since responsibilities have also required energy legislation, and seizing gressional leaders pledged to have receiving her PhD in Engineer- multiple trips to Moscow for meet- Democratic turf by fixing Medicare all thirteen appropriations bills ing Science and Mechanics from ings with Russia’s S&T Ministry to and making prescription drugs See BELTWAY on page 3 the Georgia Institute of Technol- establish high-priority scientific available to the elderly. ogy, Flatten has worked in issues for the US-Russia Joint By year’s end, the Republicans private industry, academia, and S&T Committee, co-chaired by had succeeded in achieving only HHighlights the Federal government. Since Russia’s S&T Minister and the US the last goal. The Energy Bill re- 1995, Flatten has also held a fac- President’s Science Advisor. mained stalled by regional ulty position with the Johns In addition to her bilateral differences over ethanol supports Hopkins Part-Time Engineering activities with Russia, Flatten was and MTBE indemnities. And most 12 and Applied Sciences Program, responsible for bringing together of the appropriations bills never The Back where she received the 2000 multiple Federal agencies to made it through the Senate. Page Excellence in Teaching Award. advance UNESCO’s S&T activi- Democrats, as might be expected, William A. Wulf on the impact of cur- Serving nearly five years with ties after President Bush offered little help. In the Senate, they rent visa restriction the OSTP, Flatten branched Photo Credit: Lalena Lancaster See FLATTEN on page 4 peppered their rivals with sniper fire, on national security. 2 February 2004 NEWS This Month in Physics History February 9, 1990: Death of George de Mestral “You would never think going “Under the most favorable dis- home and turning on the faucet tribution model, we can say at the Sardonic talk show host David clothing and sports apparel real- that something so familiar could 95 percent confidence level that Letterman delighted millions ized the possibilities, and soon the contain so many stories.” this first generation of gravitational across the country when he company was selling over 60 mil- —Wendy Zhang, University of wave detectors could register a attached himself to a wall of lion yards of Velcro per year, making Chicago, on studying how drops drip, neutron star merger every one to Velcro as part of his late night de Mestral a multimillionaire. He The Baltimore Sun, December 1, 2003 two years,” antics, inspired by a quirky bar- died on February 9,1990, and was ✶✶✶ —Vicky Kalogera, Northwestern room pastime of tossing midgets inducted into the National “There are some indications that University, Times-Picayune (New onto similarly constructed walls. Inventor’s Hall of Fame in 1999. the X(3872) may be the first example Orleans, LA), December 4, 2003 Today, Velcro is everywhere, rival- From a purely scientific stand- ✶✶✶ of a new type of subatomic particle, ing the zipper in its ingenuity and point, Velcro belongs to a class of one where two more ordinary par- “We don’t basically know what the extent to which it has perme- materials called polymers, which ticles attach to each other, similar to 99 percent of the universe is. This ated our daily lives. But it wasn’t contain many chemically bonded the way atoms stick together to form mine is a telescope into that new your Uncle Milton (or Frank, or units which are themselves bonded molecules. If so, this is the first world.” Harold, or any number of distant Photo Credit: Francoise and Charles together to form a solid. de Mestral glimpse of a whole new realm of —Jordan Goodman, University of relatives that seek to lay claim to Traditionally made of out George de Mestral, subatomic physics.” Maryland, on plans to develop an units origins) that invented this of nylon, Velcro can be —Stephen Olsen, University of derground laboratory in the holding a strip of unique little gadget. It was a Swiss Velcro® made out of other materi- Hawaii, The Honolulu Advertiser, Homestake gold mine, The Boston engineer named George de als as well, such as plastic, December 3, 2003 Globe, January 2, 2004 Mestral. of invention and, stainless steel and silver, ✶✶✶ ✶✶✶ Born in June 1907 in Lausanne, working on a small which provide unique “At the present moment, there “We’ll never go to these stars.

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