Academy Aids Effort to Release Political Prisoner
A recipient of The New York Academy of Sciences’ Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award was recently released from a Vietnamese prison.
Published February 3, 2005
By Fred Moreno
Academy Contributor

Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, a Vietnamese doctor who won The New York Academy of Sciences’ 2004 Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award for his efforts to improve the lives of his fellow citizens, has been released from prison by the Vietnamese government following a campaign by a coalition of individuals and organizations, including the Academy.
In a letter to the Academy from Dr. Que’s brother, Dr. Quan Nguyen wrote about his brother’s release: “It is wonderful news and you’ve made it happen. On behalf of Dr. Que and my family, I thank you for all that you’ve done for Dr. Que and other dissidents around the world.”
Dr. Nguyen accepted the Pagels prize on behalf of his brother in ceremonies at the Academy in September, 2004. Awarded annually in recognition of services on behalf of the human rights of scientists, the Pagels award was given to Dr. Que “in recognition of his courage and singular moral responsibility as a medical doctor committed to the welfare and health care of the Vietnamese people and for peacefully promoting human rights in Vietnam.”
The Academy’s first human rights award was given in 1979 to Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov. Renamed in 1988 in honor of former Academy president Heinz R. Pagels, the award has been bestowed on such imminent scientists as Chinese dissident Fang Li-Zhi, Russian Nuclear Engineer Alexander Nikitin, and Cuban Economist Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello.
Also read: Promoting Human Rights through Science