Gerald E. Brown

Gerald Edward Brown (also known as Gerry Brown, July 22, 1926 - May 31, 2013) was an American theoretical physicist who worked on nuclear physics and astrophysics. Since 1968 he had been a professor at the Stony Brook University. He was a distinguished professor emeritus of the C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook University.

Life and work Brown received his bachelor's degree in physics in 1946 from the University of Wisconsin and in 1948 his master's degree from Yale University, where in 1950 he earned his PhD (under Gregory Breit). In 1957 he earned his D.Sc. from the University of Birmingham in England (under Rudolf Peierls), 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 in Copenhagen and concurrently from 1964 to 1968 Professor at Princeton 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. In the 1980s he also worked together with K. Bedell on Fermi liquid theory. 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 from the universities of Helsinki (1982), Birmingham (1990) and Copenhagen (1998).

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