[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16964]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      IN HONOR OF MARTYL LANGSDORF

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Foster) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Martyl Langsdorf, 
who created the image of the now iconic Doomsday Clock for the June 
1947 cover of the bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
  The Bulletin was founded by a group of University of Chicago 
scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project, including Martyl's 
husband, physicist Alexander Langsdorf.
  Martyl's clock remains a singular reminder of the risks that we face 
from nuclear weapons and the effects of climate change.
  A renowned landscape painter and longtime resident of Schaumburg, 
Illinois, Martyl died at the age of 96 on March 26, 2013, and will be 
remembered tomorrow at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Fifth 
Annual Doomsday Clock Symposium here in our Nation's Capital.
  Fittingly titled ``Communicating Catastrophe,'' the symposium will 
reflect Martyl's sensitivity to the urgency of existential threats and 
her brilliance in using art and design ``to move past the numbness and 
create new ways of feeling, just as we tap science for new ways of 
knowing,'' in the words of Bulletin Executive Director Kennette 
Benedict.
  Martyl's legacy continues as members of the Bulletin's science and 
security board annually assess the state of world affairs and use the 
hands of the clock to signal humanity's capacity to meet challenges of 
nuclear weapons and climate change.
  World attention to the Doomsday Clock confirms the impact of what 
designer Michael Beirut, in a 2010 tribute to Martyl entitled 
``Designing the Unthinkable,'' called ``the most powerful piece of 
information design of the 20th century.''
  Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the late 
Martyl Langsdorf for raising the world's awareness about grave threats 
and also the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists for providing information 
and rational analysis that points to a safer world.
  To close on a personal note, it was at one of Martyl Langsdorf's 
annual peony parties at her garden in Schaumburg, during a long 
conversation with wise old lawyer and Bulletin stalwart Lowell 
Sachnoff, that was one of the first times I began seriously considering 
my own stepping away from my career in science to begin one in public 
service.

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