William Francis Brace (26 August 1926, Littleton, New Hampshire – 2 May 2012) was an American geophysicist.

Career

Education

Brace matriculated in 1943 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and after 1944–1946 service in the Navy, graduated with bachelor's degrees in 1946 in naval architecture and in 1949 in civil engineering. In 1953 he received his PhD from MIT's department of geology and geophysics. In 1953–1954 he was a

Fulbright scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

at Bruno Sander's laboratory in Austria.

Work at MIT

In 1955 he became an assistant professor at MIT and was from 1976 to 1981 MIT's Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Geology, retiring in 1988 as professor emeritus. From 1981 to 1988 he was the head of MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. At MIT he established a school of quantitative geological rock formation; this school is associated with results such as Byerlee's Law and Brace-Goetze Strength Profiles.

Retirement

In his retirement, among other activities, Brace undertook the study of grasses and sedges, particularly in Concord, Massachusetts. Over the course of eight years he documented six sedge species (five of them native) and seven grass species new to Concord.

Honors

Brace was a Guggenheim Fellow for the academic year 1960–1961. He was elected in 1953 a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, in 1963 a Fellow of the American Geophysical Society, and in 1971 a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1971 he was elected a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

. In 1987 he received the Bucher Medal of the American Geophysical Union and the Distinguished Achievement Award from the U.S. National Committee on Rock Mechanics. MIT established the William F. Brace Lecture Series in his honor.The William F. Brace Lecture Series , MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
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Selected publications

* with Chris Goetze: ''Laboratory observations of high temperature rheology of rocks'', Tectonophysics, 13, 1972, 583-600 * with David Kohlstedt: ''Limits on lithospheric stress imposed by laboratory experiments'', J. Geophys. Res., 85, 1980, 6248-6252 * with J. D. Byerlee: ''Stick-slip as a mechanism for earthquakes'', Science, vol. 153, 1966, 990-992 * with Byerlee: ''Stick-slip, stable sliding and earthquakes—Effect of rock type, pressure, strain rate and stiffness'', J. Geophys. Res., 73, 1968, 6031-6037 * with R. M. Stesky, D. Riley, P.-Y. Robin: ''Friction in faulted rock at high temperature and pressure'', Tectonophysics, 23, 1974, 177-203 * with Stesky
''Estimation of frictional stress in the San Andreas fault from laboratory measurements''
in R. L. Kovach, A. Nur (eds.) ''Proc. Conf. on the tectonic problems of the San Andreas fault'', Stanford University Publ. Geolog. Sci., 12, 1973, 206-214

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brace, William Francis American geophysicists American geologists MIT School of Engineering alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1926 births 2012 deaths