James J. Brady

James Joseph Brady (1904–1993) was a physicist on the faculty of Oregon State University and a Fellow of the American Institute of Physics.

Early life and education James Joseph Brady was born in Oregon City, Oregon, November 24, 1904, the son of Edward A. Brady and Mary E. (née Riley) Brady. He graduated in 1923 from Oregon City High School, and completed his baccalaureate degree in 1927 at Reed College. Supervised by Arthur Lee Foley, he wrote his 1928 M.S. thesis, Polarization of Radio Waves, at Indiana University.

Brady earned a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, with his 1931 dissertation, A quantitative study of the photo-electric properties of alkali metal films, advised by E. O. Lawrence. He was then recruited for a faculty position at Saint Louis University by Father Macelwane, but Lawrence persuaded Macelwane to pay Brady as a research associate at Berkeley until the beginning of the fall term of 1932 at St. Louis.

On September 3, 1932, Brady wed Mary Contratto in Bakersfield and they moved to Missouri.

Career

In August 1932, Brady had been preparing to study, "the ionization probability of high-speed protons in nitrogen using the 11-inch cyclotron" at Berkeley.

From 1932 to 1937, Brady was an assistant professor at Saint Louis University, where he published articles on photoelectric sensitization of potassium and the energy distribution of photoelectrons in potassium film.

Brady joined the faculty of Oregon State as an assistant professor in 1937, and in 1939 he was promoted to associate professor there. The departmental history records "gaseous electronics" as his principle field of interest in that period. From 1941–1945, Brady went on leave of absence for civilian war service to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory, as an assistant leader of the antenna group, researching and developing microwave radar. Brady and Richard Dempster, who was another UC Berkeley alum, conceived the 37-inch cyclotron, with encouragement from UC Berkeley's Radiation Laboratory, in the form of donated steel parts of the magnet.

In 1971, Brady and Larry Hunte, director of OSU's computer center, were awarded a $1690,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to "develop computer graphic techniques that will enrich and enhance the quality of undergraduate science education".

"James J. Brady" was listed as a professor emeritus of physics at Oregon State University in May, 1972.

Brady participated in a 1973 three-month project at the U. S. Navy Electronics Laboratory Center at San Diego, "to develop the technique of carrying conversation through glass fiber by means of light". Brady was involved designing, constructing, and testing equipment to reduce the system's light loss.

Selected publications

Recognition

1957 – American Physical Society General Fellowship