Soviet Union May Release Chemist Sought by MIT

The Soviet Union has apparently agreed to permit the emigration of Benjamin Levich, a world-renowned electrochemist who is being offered a teaching post at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

A list of 18 Soviet families who may receive permission to emigrate to the United States or Israel, released by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.) this week, includes the names of Levich and his wife Tanya as well as lesser-known Soviet "refuseniks."

In a press conference on Monday, Kennedy said Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev promised him last week that the visa applications of the families would be "reconsidered." Kennedy met Brezhnev in Moscow during a trip met Brezhnev in Moscow during a trip to the USSR to attend a world health conference.

May Leave Soon

A spokesman for Kennedy said yesterday the Soviets have given "every indication" that the families will be allowed to leave within a few weeks.

A statement released yesterday by Jerome B. Wiesner, MIT president, said MIT has offered Levich a visiting faculty appointment. But a spokesman for Wiesner said yesterday MIT has not talked to Levich directly about the appointment. "We don't yet know what his plans are," he said.

MIT offered Levich the teaching post in part to enhance his chances of being allowed to emigrate, the Kennedy spokesman said.

Applied for Visa

Levich served as head of the department of electrochemistry at Moscow University until 1972, when he applied for a visa to emigrate to Israel. After applying, Soviet authorities fired him from his teaching job, and forbade him from conducting research or publishing his work. One of his two sons entered a Siberian labor camp in 1973, but has since been released.

"Levich was the highest-ranked Soviet academician ever to ask to leave," Jonathan M. Schenker, an officer of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, said yesterday. The Soviets tried to make Levich a "living example" of what would happen to citizens who applied for emigration, Schenker said.

Dudley R. Herschbach, professor of Chemistry and chairman of the Chemistry Department, said yesterday he is very glad to hear that Levich may be allowed to emigrate.

Harbinger

"I hope this will be a harbinger of other cases in which the Soviets allow people to leave," Herschbach said.

A spokesman for the Soviet Embassy in Washington said yesterday that the Soviet government had made no statement concerning the possible release of Levich or the other families. "You will have to talk to Senator Kennedy," she said.