Gerald E. Brown
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Gerald Edward Brown (born July 22, 1926 in
Brookings, South Dakota Brookings is a city in Brookings County, South Dakota, United States. Brookings is South Dakota's fourth largest city, with a population of 23,377 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Brookings County, and home to South Dakota State Un ...
; † May 31, 2013 in New York City) was an American theoretical physicist who worked on nuclear physics and astrophysics. Since 1968 he had been a professor at the Stony Brook University.CV from Homepage of Gerald Brown
/ref> He was a distinguished professor emeritus of the
C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics __NOTOC__ The C. N. Yang Institute of Theoretical Physics (YITP) is a research center at Stony Brook University. In 1965, it was the vision of then University President J.S. Toll and Physics Department chair T.A. Pond to create an institute for th ...
at Stony Brook University.


Life and work

Brown received his bachelor's degree in physics in 1946 from the
University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...
and in 1948 his master's degree from
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, where in 1950 he earned his PhD. In 1957 he earned his D.Sc. from the
University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...
in England (under
Rudolf Peierls Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, (; ; 5 June 1907 – 19 September 1995) was a German-born British physicist who played a major role in Tube Alloys, Britain's nuclear weapon programme, as well as the subsequent Manhattan Project, the combined Allie ...
), where he was from 1955 docent and in 1959/60 was professor for theoretical physics. From 1960 to 1985 he was a professor at
NORDITA The Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, or NORDITA, or Nordita ( da, Nordisk Institut for Teoretisk Fysik), is an international organisation for research in theoretical physics. It was established as Nordisk Institut for Teoretisk Atomfys ...
in Copenhagen and concurrently from 1964 to 1968 Professor at
Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...
and since 1968 he was a professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he became Distinguished Professor of Physics in 1988. Brown worked first in theoretical atomic physics (self-ionization of the vacuum with Geoff Ravenhall in 1951,
Lamb shift In physics, the Lamb shift, named after Willis Lamb, is a difference in energy between two energy levels 2''S''1/2 and 2''P''1/2 (in term symbol notation) of the hydrogen atom which was not predicted by the Dirac equation, according to which th ...
in heavy atoms, electron-electron interactions, precise calculation of
Rayleigh scattering Rayleigh scattering ( ), named after the 19th-century British physicist Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt), is the predominantly elastic scattering of light or other electromagnetic radiation by particles much smaller than the wavelength of th ...
). In nuclear physics, where he was for decades one of the leading theorists of nuclear
many body problem The many-body problem is a general name for a vast category of physical problems pertaining to the properties of microscopic systems made of many interacting particles. ''Microscopic'' here implies that quantum mechanics has to be used to provid ...
s in
particle physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...
, he worked, for example, with Mark Bolsteri on the giant dipole resonance, with Tom Kuo on effective interactions of nucleons in atomic nuclei, as well on chiral invariant theories of the atomic nucleus (with Mannque Rho and Dan-Olof Riska), that is to say, field theories with
pion In particle physics, a pion (or a pi meson, denoted with the Greek letter pi: ) is any of three subatomic particles: , , and . Each pion consists of a quark and an antiquark and is therefore a meson. Pions are the lightest mesons and, more gene ...
s and other
meson In particle physics, a meson ( or ) is a type of hadronic subatomic particle composed of an equal number of quarks and antiquarks, usually one of each, bound together by the strong interaction. Because mesons are composed of quark subparticles, ...
s. Starting in the 1970s he worked frequently in collaboration with
Hans Bethe Hans Albrecht Bethe (; July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005) was a German-American theoretical physicist who made major contributions to nuclear physics, astrophysics, quantum electrodynamics, and solid-state physics, and who won the 1967 Nobel ...
on the nuclear-physics-derived equations of state in the theory of compact stars ( gravitational collapse, supernovae, double stars with compact stars as partners, development of black holes,
gamma ray burst In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are immensely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the most energetic and luminous electromagnetic events since the Big Bang. Bursts can last from ten millise ...
s). Since the end of the 1970s, Brown worked on bag models of nucleons (
Chiral bag model In physics and chemistry, a nucleon is either a proton or a neutron, considered in its role as a component of an atomic nucleus. The number of nucleons in a nucleus defines the atom's mass number (nucleon number). Until the 1960s, nucleons we ...
). In the 1980s he also worked together with K. Bedell on
Fermi liquid theory Fermi liquid theory (also known as Landau's Fermi-liquid theory) is a theoretical model of interacting fermions that describes the normal state of most metals at sufficiently low temperatures. The interactions among the particles of the many-body ...
. Toward the end of Bethe's life, Bethe told Brown to explain his work to the rest of the world.


Awards and recognition

Brown received an
honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
from the
Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...
(1982),
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
(1990) and
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
(1998). *Fellow of The
Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters {{Infobox organization , name = The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters , full_name = , native_name = Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab , native_name_lang = , logo = Royal ...
*Fellow of the American Physical Society *1966 Silver Medal of the
University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...
*1974 Haederspris of the
Niels Bohr Institute The Niels Bohr Institute (Danish: ''Niels Bohr Institutet'') is a research institute of the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy, geophysics, nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum mechanics and biophysics ...
* 1975 Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
* 1976 Boris Pregel Award of the
New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (originally the Lyceum of Natural History) was founded in January 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is the fourth oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization wi ...
* 1978 Academician of the National Academy of Sciences * 1982
Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics The Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics is an annual prize awarded by the American Physical Society's Division of Nuclear Physics. Established in 1964, and currently consisting of $10,000 and a certificate, the Bonner Prize was founded in memor ...
of the American Physical Society * 1992
John Price Wetherill Medal The John Price Wetherill Medal was an award of the Franklin Institute. It was established with a bequest given by the family of John Price Wetherill (1844–1906) on April 3, 1917. On June 10, 1925, the Board of Managers voted to create a silver ...
of the
Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...
* 1996
Max Planck Medal The Max Planck medal is the highest award of the German Physical Society , the world's largest organization of physicists, for extraordinary achievements in theoretical physics. The prize has been awarded annually since 1929, with few exceptions, ...
of the Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft * 2001 Hans A. Bethe Prize of the American Physical Society * Fellow of the
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Unive ...
.


Selected works

* "''Unified theory of nuclear models''", North Holland, Interscience 1964, new edition entitled "''Unified theory of nuclear models and forces''", North Holland 1967, 1971 * with A. D. Jackson "''The Nucleon Nucleon Interaction''", North Holland 1976 * "''Many body problems''", North Holland 1972 * with Ravenhall "''On the interaction of two electrons''", Proceedings of the Royal Society A 208, 1951, 552 * with Bolsteri "''Dipole state in nuclei''", Physical Review Letters, Bd.3, 1959, 472 * "''Die Entdeckung der Multipol-Riesenresonanzen in Atomkernen''", Physikalische Blätter 1997, S.710 (Vortrag aus Anlass der Verleihung der Max Planck Medaille der DPG) * with Kuo "''Structure of finite nuclei and the free Nucleon-Nucleon interaction: an application to O18 and F18''", Nuclear Physics A, Bd.85, 1966, S.40–86 * * with Rho "''Towards a basis in QCD for nuclear physics''", Comments on Nuclear and Particle Physics Bd. 16, 1986, 245 * * "''The structure of the Nucleon''", Physics Today January 1983 * with Zahed "''The Skyrme Model''", Physics Reports, Bd.142, 1986, S.1–102 * with Weise, Baym, Speth "''Relativistic effects in nuclear physics''", Comments on Nuclear and Particle Physics, Bd. 17, 1987, 37 * with Bethe, Applegate, Lattimer "''Evolution of state in the gravitational collapse of stars''", Nuclear Physics A 324, 1979, S.487 * * with Bethe "''How a Supernova explodes''", Scientific American Mai 1985


References


External links


Dr. Brown's faculty page

Homepage of the Nuclear Theory Group of SUNY in Stony Brook

Biography of Brown from the APSStories about Gerry BrownFROM NUCLEI TO STARS – Festschrift in Honor of Gerald E Brown
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Gerald E. American physicists 1926 births 2013 deaths University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni Yale University alumni Stony Brook University faculty Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Alumni of the University of Birmingham People from Brookings, South Dakota Fellows of the American Physical Society Winners of the Max Planck Medal