H. Dean Brown
| H. Dean Brown | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 13, 1927 North Dakota |
| Died | June 24, 2003 (aged 75) California |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
South Dakota State College University of Kansas |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions |
DuPont Princeton University Computer Usage Company SRI International Zilog Picodyne Corporation |
Harold Dean Brown (August 13, 1927 – June 24, 2003) was a scientist in the United States. His fields ranged from physics and mathematics to computer software and philosophy.
Harold Dean Brown (generally known as Dean Brown) was born in North Dakota on August 13, 1927. Brown received his BS degree in physics, mathematics, and chemistry from South Dakota State College in 1947. He was a University Fellow at the University of Kansas, from 1950 to 1952, where he received both his master's and doctoral degrees in physics. His doctoral degree specialized in classical and quantum stability.
From 1952 to 1958 he was a nuclear reactions specialist in the DuPont Atomic Energy Division, Savannah River Laboratory and Project Matterhorn at Princeton University. While at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study he claimed to be a friend of Albert Einstein, with whom he played Go as a way of exploring John von Neumann's game theory.
During his time at DuPont, Brown served as chief scientist at the Savannah River Laboratory in a four-person evaluation team that selected the IBM 650 (the second off the line) in 1956 as the first general purpose electronic digital computer system installed there. According to R. R. Haefner
In the summer of 1953, with assistance from Marian Spinrad, [Brown] used Friden hand calculators to determine the flux distribution for a fuel rod that was later tested at the Hanford Works.... [A]ll the other physicists were on vacation and were horrified to return and discover that Brown had made the calculations and then, without waiting for a colleague to return and check them, had told Hanford where to place the fuel rods.
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