Scientists want inquiry into absence of Israelis at Jordan chemistry conference

The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities has asked an international chemistry association to examine whether organizers of an upcoming conference in Jordan deliberately excluded Israeli researchers from the list of invited speakers.

The request followed a call by Roald Hoffman, a Nobel laureate in chemistry at Cornell University, to boycott the event, whose 110 speakers do not include a single Israeli.

The 11th Eurasia Conference on Chemical Sciences, scheduled for October 6-8 at a conference center on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea, is aimed at exposing young scientists from developing countries to some of the world's leading researchers. The biennial event has previously been hosted in countries as varied as Turkey, Pakistan, Vietnam and Malaysia.