Society for Social Responsibility in Science

Founded in 1949 by Victor Paschkis, a Viennese engineer, SSRS was an international body of scientific and technical professionals who took personal responsibility for the consequences of their scientific research. SSRS put emphasis on constructive alternatives to militarism. The United States section was organized in September 1949 at Haverford, PA. The Society may have ceased after Paschkis' 1974 resignation.

The Society for Social Responsibility in Science was founded in 1949, the convening meeting and Constituting Assembly both held at Haverford College. It was conceived as an organization of workers in the natural sciences to maintain free inquiry concerning the relations of science and society, the maintenance of scientific integrity, a concern for the increasing use of science for destructive ends, a belief that science and technology should contribute to the benefit of mankind, never to harm or destroy, and that each person has the moral responsibility to consider the end results of his/her work as far as it can be seen. As well, they planned to operate an employment service and an educational program concerning their society. Although it did not identify itself as a pacifist or a Quaker organization, many members were also members of the Fellowship for Reconciliation (a pacifist organization) and Quakers. SSRS published a monthly newsletter. It ceased operation in ca. 1976. Several committees were formed by the SSRS, one of them, the Occupational Division, offered assistance to scientists seeking employment. Other committees were the Education Committee providing programs for an understanding of the work of SSRS to the public; the Small Tools Committee, which put tools "on the ground" in various foreign countries in order to assist in a variety of development projects, especially subsistence rural living. It also distributed books which had belonged to scientists who no longer needed them; also, the Nominating Committee and Executive Committee.

In 1949, Franklin Miller, a Professor of Physics at Kenyon College, was one of the founding members of SSRS. He was president of SSRS from 1953-55 and editor of the monthly SSRS Newsletter distributed to some 500 readers world wide from 1949 to ca. 1960. Victor Paschkis was born in Vienna in 1898 where he studied at the Vienna Institute of Technology. He received degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering in 1921 and 1922 respectively and a science doctorate in 1923. From 1922-1930, he worked in various German and Austrian industries. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1938. He worked in industry until 1940, then as Director of the Heat and Mass Flow Analyzer Laboratory at Columbia University. He was the author of several books and published in numerous technical and scientific journals, as well as in the Friends Intelligencer. He was the founder and president of SSRS from 1949-1950. Victor Paschkis was a member of the Society of Friends. Otto Theodor Benfey (1925-) was born in Germany, received his B.S. from London University in chemistry in 1945 and a Ph.D. in 1947. He was a post-doc fellow at Columbia University in 1947. He came to Haverford College as an assistant professor in 1948. He served as president from 1952-53, as well as librarian and delegate at large in the SSRS. Benfey was a member of the Society of Friends. Theodore Brinton Hetzel (1906-1990) was born in Germantown, PA and attended Haverford College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1928. He completed graduate studies in mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, the Technical University of Munich (Germany), and Penn State University. He returned to Haverford College in 1936 as a member of the faculty and later chair of the Department of Engineering, remaining on the faculty until 1972. Hetzel served on the Indian Committees of the American Friends Service Committee and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Adopted by the Seneca Indians, he was given the Indian name "Our friend."