To the Prime Minister and the Chair of Parliament of Bulgaria

Gentlemen,

we have been informed about the severe situation of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the fund cuts that have been proposed.

As members of a many years lasting international collaboration with some scientists of the BAS, we had the opportunity to profit of their expertise and to esteem and value the scientific knowledge of our colleagues from Sofia, whose work, beside being well recognized worldwide, has been and still is vital for the success of our experiments and the education of young students.

We had also the opportunity to see how deep is their commitment to research and teaching and, despite all the difficulties, how great are the results they have achieved.

For all these reasons and also because of the personal relationships we have estabilished since the beginning of our common work, we are seriously concerned about the funds cuts and the political reorganization of the Academy your Government is going to approve: any limitation or reduction to the Academy funding or freedom is a wound for the Bulgarian culture and for Bulgarian citizens and their hope to resist to this international economic crisis, but it will be also a dramatic damage for European science...

Will be you to be remembered as the ones who destroyed such Bulgarian treasure? Please, stop financial cuts to the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences!

Silvia Gozzini
Senior Researcher
Head of the Nonlinear Optics Laboratory
National Institute of Optics - UOS PISA
National Council of Research

Alessandro Lucchesini
Researcher
Head of the Diode laser Spectroscopy Laboratory
National Institute of Optics - UOS PISA
National Council of Research

Carlo Gabbanini
Senior Researcher
Head of the Laser Cooling Laboratory
National Institute of Optics - UOS PISA
National Council of Research

Luca Marmugi
PhD Student
University of Siena&
National Institute of Optics - UOS PISA


http://lonl.pisa.ino.it/index.html