Theodore L. Brown
Born (1928-10-15) October 15, 1928
Green Bay, Wisconsin, US
Alma materMichigan State University, Illinois Institute of Technology
SpouseAudrey Catherine Brockman
Scientific career
FieldsInorganic chemistry
InstitutionsBeckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Doctoral advisorMax T. Rogers

Theodore Lawrence Brown (born October 15, 1928) is an American scientist known for research, teaching, and writing in the field of physical inorganic chemistry, a university administrator, and a philosopher of science.[1] In addition to his research publications, Brown has written textbooks on general chemistry and science communication which have been published in multiple languages and used in multiple countries. He is a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he has also held the administrative positions of vice chancellor for research and dean of the graduate college (1980–1986). He is the founding director emeritus of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.

Career

Theodore L. Brown was born October 15, 1928, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, to Lawrence A. Brown and Martha E. (Kedinger) Brown.[2] He earned a Bachelor of Science in chemistry at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1950. From 1950 to 1953, he served with the U.S. Navy.[3] On January 6, 1951, he married Audrey Catherine Brockman.[2][4]

Brown then attended Michigan State University,[5] where he worked with Max T. Rogers. He was a Du Pont Teaching Fellow, 1955–1956.[6] He received his Ph.D. in 1956. His thesis, I. Solution Structures of Lithium Alkyl Compounds. II. Infrared Intensities of the OH Stretching Bond in Alcohols, identified two research areas that he would focus on early in his career.[3]

He joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he became an assistant professor of chemistry in 1958, an associate professor in 1961, and a professor in 1965.[7] His textbook Chemistry: The Central Science, initially coauthored with H. E. LeMay, has been published in fourteen editions.[5] Between 1958 and 1993, when he retired from teaching, Brown supervised 61 Ph.D. and 28 postdoctoral students.[3] As of 1994 he became professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Illinois.[8]

Ted Brown published extensively on alkyl lithium reagents in solution in the 1960s. His work in the 1970s includes contributions on metal carbonyl complexes, metal carbonyl radicals, molecular orbital theory, and Nuclear quadrupole resonance.[3] He has researched and published extensively in the areas of inorganic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, chemical kinetics and mechanisms of reactions.[8]

He served as the vice-chancellor for research and dean of the graduate college from 1980 to 1986.[5] He is the founding director emeritus of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which he headed from 1987 to 1993.[7] Brown's book Bridging divides describes the development of the institute.[9][10] Brown also served as a council member of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable during 1989–1994.[11] He also co-chaired a National Academies committee on Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research for the Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy (2003-2005).[5][8] He served on the board of directors of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation during 1994–2008.

Brown's later work focuses on the cognitive, philosophical and social aspects of science. In 2003 he published the widely cited Making Truth: Metaphor in Science, exploring metaphorical reasoning in science.[1][12] Imperfect Oracle: The Epistemic and Moral Authority of Science in Society, appeared in 2009.[5] In 2018 he published a work of historical fiction, "The Beauty of their Dreams".

Awards and honors

Brown has been an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow[13] and a National Science Foundation Senior Postdoctoral Fellow (1965-1965)[13] and in 1979 was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.[14] He was honored with the American Chemical Society Award for Research in Inorganic Chemistry in 1972,[15] and with the American Chemical Society Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry in 1993.[16] He was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1987 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994.[8] He was elected as a fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2010.[17]

References

  1. 1 2 Laszlo, Pierre (2004). "Metaphors Chemists Live By". Hyle: International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry. 10 (1): 47–51. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  2. 1 2 Evory, Ann (1978). Contemporary authors : a bio-bibliographical guide to current writers in fiction, general nonfiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures, television, and other fields (1. rev. ed.). Gale Research: Gale Research. ISBN 978-0810300385.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Atwood, Jim D. (June 1994). "DEDICATION". Journal of Coordination Chemistry. 32 (1–3): i–ii. doi:10.1080/00958979408024232.
  4. ↑ "Indiana Marriages, 1811-200, database with images, Theodore L. Brown and Audrey Brockman, 1951". FamilySearch. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Theodore L. Brown Emeritus Professor of Chemistry". Chemistry at Illinois. Retrieved 4 September 2015. A number of sources, including some at Illinois, incorrectly give his alma mater as the University of Michigan.
  6. ↑ Brown, Theodore L.; Rogers, Max T. (April 1957). "The Preparation and Properties of Crystalline Lithium Alkyls". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 79 (8): 1859–1861. doi:10.1021/ja01565a024.
  7. 1 2 "Theodore L. Brown Papers, 1951–1996". University of Illinois Archives. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  8. 1 2 3 4 National Academy of Sciences; National Academy of Engineering; Institute of Medicine (2005). Facilitating interdisciplinary research. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. p. 210. ISBN 978-0-309-54727-7. OCLC 70737622.
  9. ↑ Brown, Theodore L. (2009). Bridging divides : the origins of the Beckman Institute at Illinois. Urbana: University of Illinois. ISBN 978-0252034848. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
  10. ↑ Arnold Thackray & Minor Myers, Jr. (2000). Arnold O. Beckman : one hundred years of excellence. foreword by James D. Watson. Philadelphia, Pa.: Chemical Heritage Foundation. ISBN 978-0-941901-23-9.
  11. ↑ National Academy of Sciences; National Academy of Engineering; Institute of Medicine (2005). Facilitating interdisciplinary research. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-309-54727-7. OCLC 70737622.
  12. ↑ Sardella, D. J. (2004). "Review of Making Truth. Metaphor In Science, by Theodore L. Brown". The Nucleus. February. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  13. 1 2 Brown, Theodore L. (1966). "The Structures of Organolithium Compounds". Advances in organometallic chemistry. Burlington: Elsevier. pp. 365–395. ISBN 978-0080580043. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  14. ↑ "Theodore L. Brown". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  15. ↑ "ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry". ACS Chemistry for Life. American Chemical Society. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  16. ↑ "ACS Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of lnorganic Chemistry". ACS Chemistry for Life. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  17. ↑ Ahlberg, Liz (August 4, 2010). "Four University of Illinois professors elected ACS fellows". University of Illinois News Bureau. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
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