Dr. Lawden Again Refused U.S. Visa

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31128, 3 August 1966, Page 1

Dr. Lawden Again Refused U.S. Visa

Dr. D. F. Lawden, professor of mathematics at the University of Canterbury and a world authority on the optimum trajectories for space rockets, has again been refused a visa to visit the United States. No reason has been given.

"I don't know why, but I suppose it is because some Americans object to my being' associated with ideas and people that they do not approve,” said Professor Lawden. “My opposition to American intervention in Vietnam and my socialist principles are well known. It seems that anyone a little bit left of centre is suspect. “I will therefore have to return through Mexico, which is silly." Professor Lawden recalled that he received a visa and then had it cancelled in 1962 when he was invited by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation to work in California as an expert consultant on aero-space problems. Professor Lawden is going overseas to attend the International Congress of Mathematicians in Moscow this month. He attended the last in Stockholm in 1962. Between 4000 and 5000 mathematicians are expected in Moscow and, as in Stockholm, Professor Lawden has been invited to give a paper. This time it will be on basic quantum mechanics. His son, a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Sussex, will also go to Moscow. Publishers in Moscow have also asked Professor Lawden to discuss the publication in Russian of his book on orbital theory which was published in Britain in 1963. After visiting universities in Britain, Professor Lawden said, he wanted to have talks v With a variety of mathema-

tician colleagues in the | United States working on his special fields. This he could not now do because a visa was refused. Professor Lawden was vicepresident of the British Interplanetry Society and is a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. He was awarded its Hector medal for distinguished research two years ago.