Draft:Siarhei Besarab

Siarhei Besarab (Сяргей Васілевіч Бесараб; Сергей Васильевич Бесараб; romanized: Siarhiej Vasilevič Biesarab) is a chemist, inventor, science journalist, civil activist and notable Belarusian public popularisator of chemical sciences and nuclear safety expert. After 2020 Belarusian protests, Besarab got fired because of his political position, and lost his right to work in his profession. Later he faced political persecution from the authorities for his popular science writings criticizing the safety systems of the Astravets Nuclear Power Plant and discussing Russian nuclear weapons. Under the threat of imprisonment from State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus (Belarusian KGB) he was forced to leave Belarus and since June 2023 lives and works in EU.

Childhood and education
Siarhei Besarab was born in 1984 in the Western Belarusian city Novogrudok, Grodno Region. Besarab received his Bachelor's of Science from Department of Radiation Chemistry of the Faculty of Chemistry of the Belarusian State University. He earned his master's degree in chemistry at the University of National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Then Besarab obtained his PhD in surface science at the Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

Research
From 2010 onward, Besarab has been working as a research scientist in the Laboratory of Adsorbents and Adsorption Processes at the Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences in Belarus. The primary focus of the scientific works is exploring the properties of inorganic porous materials, finding effective adsorbents, and developing new catalysts. Besarab has authored 12 patents for inorganic porous materials and catalyst carriers.

The Besarab's research findings were ranked among the TOP100 in both fundamental and applied research at the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus from 2011 to 2015. Also Besarab's scientific work earned him two prizes in the Republican scientific research competition, in 2009 and 2011. Additionally, in 2016, he clinched the first prize in the Belarusian part of the Skolkovo StartupTour-2016 and made it to the semi-finals of the competition with a device he made to clean the air from toxic mercury fumes.

Besarab worked as a scientific advisor with the Republican Scientific and Practical Center of Pediatric Surgery, where he contributed to developing polymer hydrogels for less invasive heart attack treatments, and introducing additive technologies in cardiac surgery. Later, in 2017 he has also been responsible for organising (as a scientific superviser) and running the first Belarusian scientific hackathon, SciHackathon.

Science Journalism and Media appearances
Siarhei Besarab, as a scientific and technology journalist, who specializes in the topics of chemistry, radiation, public safety and technologies, has written over 200 articles. His writing career began with his short technological publications in papers like the Computerra and the Computer News. In 2021, he earned the title of Best Technology Author of the Year and won the «TechText-2022» competition hosted by Habr.com. Besarab is also actively promoting and popularizing alternative and non-traditional food sources, like insect-derived protein and «novel food». As futurologist, Besarab has also contributed articles on a variety of technological and science-related topics  .In 2020, Besarab teamed up with Justyna Sauka to create a series of short audio essays in Belarusian about phytochemistry of different plants for the kids' show «Clever. Tireless. Resourceful» on Belarusian Radio's channel «Culture».

Also Besarab, as scientists, has written commentars for a number of news outlets, including Belarusian newspaper Nasha Niva, European Radio for Belarus, BelSat TV and international like Voice of America, Radio France internationale, Deutsche Welle. Since 2020, Besarab has been recognized as one of the most well-known scientific experts, regularly invited by independent Belarusian media outlets to discuss scientific, technological, public safery topics and promote science.

Public activies
Besarab became known when he, the only chemist among Belarusians, issued an official rebuttal to the accusations made against the civil activist Stsiapan Latypau from the Square of Changes, alleging a plot to poison Militsiya officers using agricultural chemicals.

Later on, Besarab got involved in creating an Appeal from representatives of Belarus's scientific community, condemning the violence against civil society that erupted after the 2020 presidential election. As a consequence, he was fired from the Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of National Academy of Sciences, lost his right to work in his profession and added to the list of Belarusian scientists repressed for political reasons. In response to the authorities' actions, the scientific community issued The Scientists’ Open Letter Against Repressions supporting their persecuted colleagues, signed by over 800 Belarusian scientists. However, the official leadership of the National Academy of Sciences didn't react to the civil activists' actions. In response to that, Besarab, along with other colleagues who faced repression, became one of the founders of the Belarusian Scientific Solidarity Fund.

At the beginning of March 2022, right after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Besarab posted an Open letter from the Belarusian scientific community against the war in Ukraine in the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus group on the social network LinkedIn, where he was the creator and administrator. In response, the leaders of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus issued a public rebuttal of the facts outlined in the letter.

In 2022, Besarab looked into statistical data from a list of Belarusian citizens who faced repression from the authorities and came up with a unique «map of Belarusian extremism», a «portrait of a Belarusian extremist» , and a «portrait of a repressed Belarusian scientist».

In April 2023, Besarab joined the «Until All Are Free» campaign and took under his informational patronage a political prisoner, chemistry student Artsiom Bayarski, repressed after 2020 Belarusian protests

As a civic activist, Besarab remains actively engaged in drawing attention to the ongoing politically motivated repression against scientists by the authorities in Belarus. He sheds light on the existing problems in Belarusian science and seeks ways to solve them. Also his faced attacks from state newspaper, like Belarus Today, propagandists due to his civic activism.

Political persecution for scientific journalism
Many of Besarab's popular science articles focus on topics like radioactivity, dosimetry, and citizen safety from radiation. He's well-known among Russian-speaking readers as a scientific journalist who covers issues like radioactivity, nuclear plant safety, and the environmental impact of nuclear waste.

After the Astravets Nuclear Power Plant was launched, Besarab essentially became one of the most active public technical critics of the station's radiation safety systems. In spring 2023, when Lukashenko mentioned bringing Russian tactical nuclear weapons into Belarus, Besarab started posting exact descriptions of potential storage sites for nuclear weapons on his blog and speaking with independent Belarusian news outlets. Consequently, all content from his science blog was labeled by Belarusian authorities as extremist's content. Under the threat of imprisonment from Belarusian KGB (facing criminal charges for causing harm to the state ) and fearing for his life, Besarab had to leave Belarus and seek political asylum in the European Union. Later, about a year later, all of Besarab's analytical predictions about where Russia might place nuclear weapons in Belarus were confirmed by independent analysts' findings (FAS).

LAB-66
In 2019, Besarab started the science blog in Telegram named LAB-66, аn independent information source initially focused on making chemistry and chemical sciences more popular.

Throughout the time the blog has been around, its analytical articles have been reprinted numerous times by publications in Belarus and Ukraine media. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, journalists from the prominent Belarusian OSINT project Belarusian Hajun frequently utilized information from the LAB-66 in their investigations.

Based on Telegram statistics, as of 2024, the LAB-66 blog has more than 18,100 readers, making it the biggest platform in Belarus focused on promoting chemistry and scientific communication in the areas of chemical sciences and civil safety (radiological and chemical protection of the citizens).