01-06-2019, 06:59 PM
Harold Brown (September 19, 1927 – January 4, 2019) was an American nuclear physicist who served as U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1977 to 1981, under President Jimmy Carter. Previously, in the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations, he held the posts of Director of Defense Research and Engineering (1961–1965) and Secretary of the Air Force (1965–1969).[1]
A child prodigy, Brown graduated from the Bronx High School of Science at age 15, and earned a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University at age 21.[2] As Secretary of Defense, he set the groundwork for the Camp David Accords, took part in strategic arms negotiations with the Soviet Union and supported, unsuccessfully, ratification of the SALT II treaty.
Brown was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Abraham, a lawyer who had fought in World War I, and Gertrude (Cohen) Brown, a diamond merchant’s bookkeeper.[3] His parents were secular Jews and strong supporters of Franklin D. Roosevelt.[2] From a very young age Brown was drawn to mathematics and physics; he enrolled as a student at the Bronx High School of Science, from which he graduated at age 15 with a grade average of 99.5.[2] He then immediately entered Columbia University, earning an A.B. summa cum laude at 17 years of age, as well as the Green Memorial Prize for the best academic record. He continued as a graduate student at Columbia, and was awarded a Ph.D. in physics in 1949, when he was 21.[2][4]
After a short period of teaching and postdoctoral research, Brown became a research scientist at the Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1952 he joined the staff of the University of California Radiation Laboratory at Livermore and became its director in 1960. At Livermore, Brown led a team of six other physicists (all older than he was) who used some of the first computers, along with mathematics and engineering, to reduce the size of thermonuclear warheads for strategic military use. Brown and his team helped make Livermore’s reputation by designing nuclear warheads small and light enough to be placed on the Navy’s nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs).[2] During the 1950s he served as a member of, or consultant to, several federal scientific bodies and as senior science adviser at the 1958-59 Conference on the Discontinuance of Nuclear Tests.[citation needed]
Brown worked under Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara as Director of Defense Research and Engineering from 1961-65, and then as Secretary of the Air Force from October 1965 to January 1969, first under McNamara and then under Clark Clifford. From 1969-77, he was President of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).[citation needed]
Much more at Wikipedia.
A child prodigy, Brown graduated from the Bronx High School of Science at age 15, and earned a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University at age 21.[2] As Secretary of Defense, he set the groundwork for the Camp David Accords, took part in strategic arms negotiations with the Soviet Union and supported, unsuccessfully, ratification of the SALT II treaty.
Brown was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Abraham, a lawyer who had fought in World War I, and Gertrude (Cohen) Brown, a diamond merchant’s bookkeeper.[3] His parents were secular Jews and strong supporters of Franklin D. Roosevelt.[2] From a very young age Brown was drawn to mathematics and physics; he enrolled as a student at the Bronx High School of Science, from which he graduated at age 15 with a grade average of 99.5.[2] He then immediately entered Columbia University, earning an A.B. summa cum laude at 17 years of age, as well as the Green Memorial Prize for the best academic record. He continued as a graduate student at Columbia, and was awarded a Ph.D. in physics in 1949, when he was 21.[2][4]
After a short period of teaching and postdoctoral research, Brown became a research scientist at the Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1952 he joined the staff of the University of California Radiation Laboratory at Livermore and became its director in 1960. At Livermore, Brown led a team of six other physicists (all older than he was) who used some of the first computers, along with mathematics and engineering, to reduce the size of thermonuclear warheads for strategic military use. Brown and his team helped make Livermore’s reputation by designing nuclear warheads small and light enough to be placed on the Navy’s nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs).[2] During the 1950s he served as a member of, or consultant to, several federal scientific bodies and as senior science adviser at the 1958-59 Conference on the Discontinuance of Nuclear Tests.[citation needed]
Brown worked under Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara as Director of Defense Research and Engineering from 1961-65, and then as Secretary of the Air Force from October 1965 to January 1969, first under McNamara and then under Clark Clifford. From 1969-77, he was President of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).[citation needed]
Much more at Wikipedia.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.