Imprisoned Iranian physics student awarded human rights prize

Nature : The American Physical Society (APS) has awarded its 2014 Andrei Sakharov Prize to Omid Kokabee, a physics PhD student jailed in Iran since January 2011. Kokabee, who is 31, did graduate studies in laser physics at the University of Texas at Austin. He was arrested as he was about to return to the US after visiting his family in Iran. He was sentenced in May 2012 to 10 years in prison for having relations with a hostile country and receiving illegitimate funds. Kokabee denies the charges. He asserts that the real reason for his arrest was his refusal to participate in Iran’s nuclear program. In awarding the prize to Kokabee, APS cited “his courage in refusing to use his physics knowledge to work on projects that he deemed harmful to humanity, in the face of extreme physical and psychological pressure.”