Alan Flowers (born 3 May 1953) is a British scientist studying the

Chernobyl nuclear disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nucl ...

, environmental and human rights activist, promoter of

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

ian culture in the UK and the chair of the Anglo-Belarusian Society.

Early years and academic career

Flowers was born in Liverpool to Scottish parents but moved to Edinburgh as a child. He went to the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

where he earned a PhD in 1980. From 1985 until his retirement in 2017 Flowers worked at

Kingston University London Kingston University London is a Public university, public research university located within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, in South London, South West London, England. Its roots go back to the Kingston Technical Institute, founded in 1 ...

in different positions. Flowers has dedicated much of his academic career to working on educational initiatives and research projects examining the widespread impact of the 1986

Chernobyl Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...

explosion - the worst nuclear accident in history. He worked closely with academics from Belarus in the immediate years after the disaster and has more recently collaborated with experts from Ukraine. He led the academic cooperation between Kingston University London and what later became the

International Sakharov Environmental Institute International Sakharov Environmental Institute is an institute in Minsk, Belarus, part of the Belarusian State University. The institute offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees. In February 2011 1,273 full-time students were enrolled ...

in Minsk between 1992 and 2004. In 2002 this university awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Radioecology.

Activism and promotion of Belarusian culture

Flowers was “introduced to Belarus, Belarusians in Britain and the Anglo-Belarusian Society by

Vera Rich Vera Rich (born Faith Elizabeth Rich, 24 April 1936 – 20 December 2009) was a British poet, journalist, historian, and translator from Belarusian and Ukrainian. Biography Born in London in April 1936, she studied at St Hilda's College of th ...

, in 1992, in connection with his academic interests in Chernobyl. In 1998 he founded the Belarus country organisation of the pan-European youth NGO �
European Youth Parliament (EYP)
��, and facilitated its parliamentary debate educational activities from then until 2014, and retains an active interest in EYP. Since 1995 he has enabled a wide range of cultural visits to the UK by Belarus theatres, artists and musicians, mainly to several Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. In 2004, Flowers was placed on the Belarusian KGB's "forbidden persons list" and banned from entering the country. While no official explanation was provided, the deportation was believed to be caused by his contacts with non-government groups in Belarus and his investigation of “high probability” claims that the Soviet Union's government deliberately seeded radioactive clouds to make them rain on South-Eastern Belarus in 1986. Flowers is the current chair of the Anglo-Belarusian Society and has actively supported the 2020-2021 Belarusian protests.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flowers, Alan Flowers, Alan Flowers, Alan Flowers, Alan Belarus–United Kingdom relations Flowers, Alan