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SCIENCE sciencemag.org 3 0 AUGUST 2019 • VOL 365 ISSUE 6456 875Nobel laureate and theoretical physicist Kip Thorne counts his de-
cades-long collaboration with Russian experimental physicist Vladimir
Braginsky as pivotal to scientific research that led to the first detection
of two colliding black holes in the distant universe.
The 2015 detection of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferom-
eter Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) was not only the birth of a
whole new way of studying the universe, a realization predicted by Al-
bert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, and a discovery that earned
Thorne and two other physicists the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics. It also
validated the enduring benefits of science diplomacy across the globe.
“Braginsky was my principal mentor on research at the interface
between theory and experiment. His mentoring made possible many
of my contributions to LIGO, and our tight collaboration led to his own
major LIGO contributions,” said Thorne. “He became the ‘conscience’
of LIGO in the 1990s and 2000s, identifying a series of sources of
noise that we had not been aware of, and triggering the LIGO Scientific
Collaboration to scope out those noise sources and
devise ways to deal with them.”
Thorne and Braginsky, who died in 2016, traveled
to each other’s laboratories, coauthored scien-
tific papers, shared findings, traded questions,
and formed a lasting friendship that began with
Thorne’s first visit to Braginsky’s lab in 1968 and
extended into the 2000s.
As scientists forged such cooperative relation-
ships despite tensions between their governments,
the American Association for the Advancement of
Science (AAAS) was pioneering efforts to spread
the global reach of science and technology by
engaging in scientific leadership initiatives through
international exchanges and scientific partnerships.
In 2008, AAAS formally established the Centerfor Science Diplomacy to advance the value of what then AAAS CEO
Alan I. Leshner described as a program “guided by the overarching
goal of using science and scientific cooperation to promote inter-
national understanding and prosperity. AAAS believes this use of
scientific collaboration and communication is essential both to the
advancement of science and its use for the benefit of our global
society.” Leshner is now serving as AAAS’s interim CEO.
At the center’s opening, Vaughan Turekian, then AAAS’s chief
international officer, said the center would “contribute to the long
and methodical building of relationships” and pursue advances to
address global challenges such as climate change, sustainability, and
health care innovation.
A year later, AAAS joined five representatives of other leading
scientific organizations in a meeting with North Korea’s State Acad-
emy of Science. During the rare visit, U.S. scientists met with their
counterparts, toured government research institutions, and reached
an agreement to pursue cooperative issues that paved the way for a
reciprocal visit of North Korean scientists to U.S. laboratories.
AAAS has continued to develop such scien-
tific agreements, including a 2013 agreement
with China’s Association for Science Technol-
ogy, a 2014 pact between AAAS and the Cuban
Academy of Sciences, a 2017 agreement with
Mexico’s Presidential Science Advisory Council,
and a 2018 agreement with the Science Com-
mission of Chile’s Senate.
It also has tapped into long-standing collabo-
rations to offer training sessions and expand
global scientific alliances. Last year, for instance,
AAAS held a regional training workshop with The
World Academy of Sciences and the Academy
of Science of South Africa to introduce regional
scientists to scientific collaborations that inform
science and advance diplomacy.AAAS NEWS & NOTES
Vladimir Braginsky, left, meets with Kip
Thorne at his Pasadena, California, home.Science diplomacy leverages alliances to build global bridges
History of U.S. and Soviet scientific research collaborations and exchanges offers lessons for today
By Anne Q. HoyKip Thorne accepts the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017 for his “decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves.”Published by AAAS